Reading with Hogwarts: Book 1
by xxlilmusicxx
Summary: To prove their lies to the Ministry, Umbridge reads about the lives of Harry and Alexis Potter to all of Hogwarts...
1. The Children Who Lived

**Hey guys! This is the book version of the Potter Twins, so I hope you'll like it.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

It was another one of those nights in the Gryffindor common room. Everyone was silent before...

"ALEX!" A fifteen year-old Harry Potter yelled as he descended the stairs of the boy's dorm, drenched from head to toe in his pajamas. Meanwhile his twin sister, Alexis Potter laughed as she caught sight of her brother. Both had matured greatly since their first year at Hogwarts. Both grew taller, though Harry grew more than Alex had. His hair was messier and slightly longer, and his years of quidditch gave him a great build. Alex on the other hand grew slender, curves in all the right places. Her hair now fell in luscious waves to her upper back. Both had black hair and bright green eyes.

Harry lunged for her, and Alex, who had been sitting on the couch dodged just in time, causing Harry to topple over. This only made her laugh harder. Now, all the Weasleys (minus Bill, Charlie, Molly, and Arthur), Hermione, and a few other Gryffindors were watching the scene in amusement.

"Alex, I'm going to - " Harry was cut off, when the portrait swung open, and Professor McGonaggal stepped inside.

"Everyone proceed to the Great Hall. Professor Dumbledore has an important announcement for us all."

As she left, Alex glanced at her brother.

"What do you think this is about?" she asked. Harry only shrugged.

**=In the Great Hall=**

Everyone was seated quietly at their tables, curious. Even the Ministry was present. Then Dumbledore stood.

"Now I'm sure everyone is wondering why they are here"

"Yeah, no kidding." Ron muttered.

"But Professor Umbridge has something important to say to you all." he said.

"She's resigning?" said Fred gleefully, and Umbridge glared at him, before smiling sweetly.

"I found something rather interesting in my office earlier today." she said and George groaned.

"It's not a love note from Filch is it?" he asked in horror. Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Hufflepuff snickered and Filch glared at him from the back of the room.

"No." said Umbridge, rather annoyed. "I found an interesting set of books."

"We were brought out of our common rooms to discuss books?" Lee gasped incedulously, causing a more snickers from the three tables.

"We will be reading one of these books tonight."

"No?" Lee mock gasped again. Cue more laughter.

"And it is called _The Potter Twins and the Philosopher's Stone_."

Everyone fell silent and looked at the said twins. Harry sat there with wide eyes, and Alex paled considerably as they watched Umbridge open the first book.

"**The Children-Who-Lived**" she said.

Alex banged her head on the table, and Harry remained silent at the looks being sent their way.

**Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much.**

"You're welcome." the Weasley twins said pompously.

**They were the last people you'd expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn't hold with such nonsense.**

The twins huffed.

**Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large ****moustache.**

"Gorgeous." Lee commented mockingly. Ron turned to him.

"Didn't know you swing that way, mate." he said.

Lee looked horrified.

**Mrs. Dursley was thin and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbo****rs.**

"Delightful." commented Alicia dully.

**The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy anywhere.**

"Fine?" Harry said indignantly.

"Small?" Alex added with shock.

Those who have actually seen him snorted.

**The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. ****They didn't think they could bear it if anyone found out about the Potters.**

"WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE POTTERS?" Many roared, even a few of the teachers.

Harry and Alex looked half-touched, half-scared.

**Mrs. Potter was Mrs. Dursley's sister, but they hadn't met for several years; in fact, Mrs. Dursley pretended she didn't have a sister**

Snape glared at the book.

**, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish**

"That's not a word." said someone from Ravenclaw.

**as it was possible to be.**

**The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbors would say if the Potters arrived in the street.**

**The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small son, too, but they had never even seen him. This boy was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn't want Dudley mixing with a child like that.**

"A child like _what_?" fumed Ginny. Ron, who had been sitting next to her, scooted away a bit.

**When Mr. and Mrs. Dursley woke up on the dull, gray Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr. Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work,**

"Why most boring?" asked Hermione. The twins shrugged.

**and Mrs. Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair.**

"Awful child." commented McGonaggal.

The twins cringed slightly, but only Ron seemed to notice and looked at them in concern.

**None of them noticed a large, tawny owl flutter past the window.**

"Are they that thick?" drawled Malfoy.

Alex snorted. "Apparently."

**At half past eight, Mr. Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs. Dursley on the cheek, and tried to kiss Dudley good-bye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls.**

The female teachers huffed.

"**Little tyke," chortled Mr. Dursley**

"He encourages it?" asked Madam Pomfrey.

Alex said nothing and Harry nodded.

**as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four's drive.**

**It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar — a cat ****reading a map.**

"Now who would that be?"

The Weasley twins grinned at McGonaggal, who glared at them. Snape sent an amused smirk her way which she ignored.

**For a second, Mr. Dursley didn't realize what he had seen — then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing on the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn't a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of?**

"Is that a trick question?" asked Alex, and people snickered.

**It must have been a trick of the light. Mr. Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It stared back. As Mr. Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive — no, **_**looking **_**at the sign; cats couldn't read maps**_**or**_**signs.**

"Ha! We know your weakness Professor!" said Fred.

"You can't read!" added George.

"Uh... guys?" said Harry. "Professor McGonaggal _can_ read."

The twins sat in their seats and pouted.

**Mr. Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove toward town he thought of nothing except a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day.**

"One-track mind" coughed Ginny.

People who heard her snickered.

**But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn't help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks.**

"What's strange about that?" asked Blaise Zabini.

"Muggles don't wear cloaks." Hermione answered.

**Mr. Dursley couldn't bear people who dressed in funny clothes — the getups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together.**

People who figured out what day it was bowed in respect.

**Mr. Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren't young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him!**

"Yes, how dare he!" said Fred pompously.

**But then it struck Mr. Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt —these people were obviously collecting for something… yes, that would be it.**

George tutted.

**The traffic moved on and a few minutes later, Mr. Dursley arrived in the Grunnings parking lot, his mind back on drills.**

**Mr. Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn't, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. **_**He **_**didn't see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at nighttime.**

"Why not?" someone from Slytherin asked.

"Muggles don't use owls." said Hermione.

**Mr. Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. ****He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more.**

"He should try working with Moody. They'll be great pals." Seamus told Dean, who fought to stifle his laughter.

**He was in a very good mood until lunchtime, when he thought he'd stretch his legs and walk across the road**

"Wait, did I hear right?" said Harry as he looked up. "He's actually_ walking_?"

**to b****uy himself a bun from the bakers opposite.**

"The world is right again." said Harry and Alex gasped.

"What?" Harry asked her.

"He only bought one?" she said shocked.

The same thought seemed to stuck Harry as his eyes widened. A few people laughed at their antics.

**He'd forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the baker's. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn't know why, but they made him uneasy. This ****lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn't see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

"**The Potters, that's right, that's what I heard –"**

" — **yes, their son, Harry – "**

**" — ****their daughter, Alexis – "**

Everyone else seemed to realize what day it is and glanced at the twins with pity.

**Mr. Dursley stopped dead.**

"YES!" yelled the Weasley twins.

**Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them, but thought better of it.**

**He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone, and had almost finished dialing his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his m****oustache, thinking… no, he was being stupid**.

"Ah, he admits it then." said Harry, and people snickered.

**Potter wasn't such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a son called Harry.**

"They don't even know your names?" hissed Angelina.

Alex shrugged.

"Still don't think he does."

Growls were heard from the Gryffindor table.

**Come to think of it, he wasn't even sure his nephew **_**was **_**called Harry. He'd never even seen the boy. It might have been Harvey. Or Harold.**

"Harvey Potter?" Ron mused, "Doesn't really sound right."

**He wasn't even aware that he _had _a niece.**

"WHAT?" More growls.

**But perhaps she wasn't called Alexis. Maybe it was Alexandra. Or Allie.**

Alex blinked. "I think I'll keep my name, thank you."

The Weasley twins,Ron, Hermione, Ginny and Harry snickered.

**There was no point in worrying Mrs. Dursley; she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn't blame her — if **_**he'd **_**had a sister like that…**

"Your sister isn't all peaches and cream either." Harry snorted.

"Is she the one that you..." Ron trailed off but grinned at the smirks on the twins' faces.

"Brilliant!"

**but all the same, those people in cloaks…**

**He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon and when he left the building at five o'clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.**

"**Sorry,"**

"He knows that word?" asked Hermione.

**he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell.**

More laughter.

**It was a few seconds before Mr. Dursley realized that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn't seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passersby stare, "Don't be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last!**

Umbridge paused and smiled.

"See he is not back." she said, but faltered as she caught sight of the twin's smirks.

"Just keep reading." said Alex.

Umbridge scowled but did so.

**Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!"**

**And the old man hugged Mr. Dursley around the middle and walked off.**

"His arms fit?" Fred stage whispered to George and Lee, and everyone laughed.

**Mr. Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off for home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn't approve of imagination.**

The Weasley twins and Lee mock gasped.

**As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw—and it didn't improve his mood — was the tabby cat he'd spotted that morning.**

People glanced at McGonaggal suspiciously.

**It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes.**

"Yup, that's Professor McGonaggal alright." Dean nodded.

"**Shoo!" said Mr. Dursley loudly.**

**The cat didn't move. It just gave him a stern look.**

"How is he still alive?" Lee said incredulously, earning a glare from his head of house.

**Was this normal cat behavio****ur,**

"Nope!" chorused the room. McGonaggal scowled.

**Mr. Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife.**

**Mrs. Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs. Next Door's problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learned a new word! ("Shan't!").**

People snorted.

**Mr. Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living room in time to catch the last report on the evening news:**

"_**And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation's owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern." The news**__** reader allowed himself a grin. "Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?"**_

"_**Well, Ted," said the weatherman, "I don't know about that, but it's not only the owls that have **__**been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire, and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they've had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early — it's not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight."**_

**Mr. Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…**

Alex blinked. "He's actually putting it together?"

"Well that proves he's developed one brain cell in a matter of ten years." said Harry. People who heard snickered.

**Mrs. Dursley came into the living room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He'd have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously.**

"**Er — Petunia, dear — you haven't heard from your sister lately, have you?"**

**As he had expected, Mrs. Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn't have a sister.**

Alex glowered at the book, Harry was silent, Hermione hissed angrily, Ginny growled, and the twins were muttering about revenge.

"**No," she said sharply. "Why?"**

"**Funny stuff on the news," Mr. Dursley mumbled. "Owls… shooting stars… and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today…"**

"_**So?**_**" snapped Mrs. Dursley.**

"**Well, I just thought… maybe… it was something to do with… you know… **_**her **_**crowd."**

"_Her_ crowd?" Ginny growled.

**Mrs. Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr. Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he'd heard the name "Potter." He decided he didn't dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, "Their children — they'd be about Dudley's age now, wouldn't they?"**

"**What's the boy's name again? Howard, isn't it?"**

"**Harry. Nasty, common name, if you ask me."**

"Well no one asked you!" Alex hissed, and Fred placed his hand on hers, calming her down a bit.

She looked up at him with a grateful smile.

"**Oh, yes," said Mr. Dursley, his heart sinking horribly. "Yes, I quite agree."**

**"But what about the girl?" he asked again, yet dreading the answer.**

**"The brat's name is Alexis. Why?"**

Growls echoed around the table.

"Alex isn't a brat!" Fred glowered.

Alex squeezed his hand in reassurance.

**"No reason."**

**He didn't say another word on the subject as they went upstairs to bed. While Mrs. Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr. Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there.**

**It was staring down Privet Drive as though it were waiting for something.**

**Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of — well, he didn't think he could bear it.**

"The feeling's mutual." Harry and Alex replied in sync.

**The Dursleys got into bed. Mrs. Dursley fell asleep quickly but Mr. Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was that even if the Potters **_**were **_**involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs. Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn't see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on — he yawned and turned over — it couldn't affect **_**them**_**…**

"How very wrong he was." said Luna dreamily.

**How very wrong he was.**

Luna blinked, and people laughed.

**Mr. Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness.**

**It was sitting as still as a statue, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn't so much as quiver when a car door slammed on the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all.**

**A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you'd have thought he'd just popped out of the ground. The cat's tail twitched and its eyes narrowed.**

The Fred and George nudged each other, grinning.

**Nothing like this man had ever been seen on Privet Drive. He was tall, thin, and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak that swept the ground, and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright, and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man's name was Albus Dumbledore.**

Umbridge paused and scowled, while many students, mainly the DA members were cheering.

**Albus Dumbledore didn't seem to realize that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome.**

**He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realize he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, "I should have known."**

**He found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air, and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop.**

"Cool sir!" shouted Seamus. Dumbledore smiled.

**He clicked it again — the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left on the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs. Dursley, they wouldn't be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street toward number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn't look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it.**

"**Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall."**

"HA! We knew it!" yelled the Weasley twins as they did some sort of victory dance. Cue more laughter.

**He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun.**

**She looked distinctly ruffled.**

"**How did you know it was me?" she asked.**

"**My dear Professor, I've never seen a cat sit so stiffly."**

More laughter.

"**You'd be stiff if you'd been sitting on a brick wall all day," said Professor McGonagall.**

"Why were you sitting on that wall all day?" asked Snape.

"Never you mind, Severus." McGonagall said stiffly. Snape just smirked bemusedly at her.

"**All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here."**

**Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily.**

Seamus and Dean sniggered.

"**Oh yes, everyone's celebrating, all right," she said impatiently. "You'd think they'd be a bit more careful, but no — even the Muggles have noticed something's going on. It was on their news." She jerked her head back at the Dursleys' dark living-room window. "I heard it. Flocks of owls… shooting stars… Well, they're not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent — I'll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense."**

"**You can't blame them," said Dumbledore gently. "We've had precious little to celebrate for eleven years."**

"**I know that," said Professor McGonagall irritably. "But that's no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumors."**

**She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn't, so she went on. "A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really **_**has **_**gone, Dumbledore?"**

"Nope." Alex smiled grimly.

"Not enough human in him to die." said Harry.

"Enough lying Potters!" yelled Umbridge. But neither twin replied as they glared at the book.

"**It certainly seems so," said Dumbledore. "We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a lemon drop?"**

"A what?" asked the purebloods.

"**A **_**what**_**?"**

"**A lemon drop. They're a kind of Muggle sweet I'm rather fond of."**

"Ah."

"**No, thank you," said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn't think this was the moment for lemon drops.**

"**As I say, even if You-Know-Who **_**has **_**gone —"**

"**My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this 'You-Know-Who' nonsense — for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: **_**Voldemort**_**."**

Umbridge stumbled over Voldemort's name and other people in the hall flinched

**Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two lemon drops, seemed not to notice. "It all gets so confusing if we keep saying 'You-Know-Who.' I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort's name."**

The twins rolled their eyes.

"**I know you haven't," said Professor McGonagall, sounding half exasperated, half admiring. "But you're different. Everyone knows you're the only one You-Know- oh, all right, **_**Voldemort**_**, was frightened of."**

"**You flatter me," said Dumbledore calmly. "Voldemort had powers I will never have."**

"That's because you're too noble to use them, sir." said Hermione.

"**Only because you're too — well —**_**noble **_**to use them."**

The Weasley twins, and surprisingly Alex, jumped up.

"Mini McGonagall!" they yelled and pointed at Hermione with horror-stricken expressions.

"Weasley, Weasley, Potter! Sit down!" The three sat with wide grins.

"**It's lucky it's dark. I haven't blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs."**

Lee gagged, and everyone else looked a bit green.

**Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said "The owls are nothing next to the **_**rumors **_**that are flying around. You know what they're saying? About why he's disappeared? About what finally stopped him?"**

**It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold, hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever "everyone" was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another lemon drop and did not answer.**

"**What they're **_**saying**_**," she pressed on, "is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric's Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumor is that Lily and James Potter are — are — that they're — **_**dead**_**."**

Harry hugged Alex, who was close to tears, and Fred held her hand. Everyone else was solemn as well.

**Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped.**

"**Lily and James… I can't believe it… I didn't want to believe it… Oh, Albus…"**

"Thanks for caring, Professor." Harry said and looked up at his head of house, who was drying her tears.

Snape clenched his jaw.

**Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. "I know… I know…" he said heavily.**

**Professor McGonagall's voice trembled as she went on. "That's not all. They're saying he tried to kill the Potter's son, Harry. ****But he couldn't. He couldn't kill that little boy. And young Alexis who was also in the curse's firing range survived as well. No one knows why, or how, but they're saying that when he couldn't kill The Potter Twins, Voldemort's power somehow broke — and that's why he's gone."**

The said twins never left their embrace, even with the eyes watching them.

**Dumbledore nodded glumly.**

"**It's — it's **_**true**_**?" faltered Professor McGonagall. "After all he's done… all the people he's killed… he couldn't kill two little children?**

"Of course." hissed Alex.

**It's just astounding… of all the things to stop him… but how in the name of heaven did Harry and Alexis survive?"**

"**We can only guess." said Dumbledore. "We may never know."**

_He knows. He just won't tell us. _Harry thought grimly.

**Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge.**

'Want one!' George yelled, earning a few weak chuckles.

**It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, "Hagrid's late. I suppose it was he who told you I'd be here, by the way?"**

"**Yes," said Professor McGonagall. "And I don't suppose you're going to tell me **_**why **_**you're here, of all places?"**

"**I've come to bring Harry and Alexis to their aunt and uncle. They're the only family they have left now."**

"Family isn't the right word." Harry said darkly. Everyone looked at them with concern, minus the Slytherins, Snape, and Umbridge.

"**You don't mean – you **_**can't **_**mean the people who live **_**here**_**?"**

"See, Professor McGonagall agrees with us." Alex pointed out as she wrenched herself from her brother's grasp.

**cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four.**

"**Dumbledore — you can't. I've been watching them all day. You couldn't find two people who are less like us. And they've got this son — I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street**

"I think he still does that."

**, screaming for sweets**

"Still does that too."

**. ****The Potters come and live here!"**

"**It's the best place for them**

"We resent that." said the twins.

**," said Dumbledore firmly. "Their aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to them when they're older. I've written them a letter."**

"A letter? You think you can explain it all in a letter?" asked Hermione.

"**A letter?" repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. "Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter?**

"See!" Fred said as he pointed an accusing finger at Hermione.

"It's a mini McGonagall!" added George.

**These people will never understand them! They'll be famous — a legend — I wouldn't be surprised if today was known as Twin Potter day in the future**

"You wouldn't dare!" yelled Alex upon seeing the Weasley twins' matching grins. Harry paled as he caught on.

"Why dear Alex - "

"what would make you think -

"we'd do such a thing?" they asked. alex glared at them.

"Because I know you."

**- there will be books written about Harry and Alexis — every child in our world will know their names!"**

Alex growled and Harry rolled his eyes.

"**Exactly." said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. "It would be enough to turn any child's head. Famous before they can walk and talk! Famous for something they won't even remember! Can you see how much better off they'll be, growing up away from all that until they're ready to take it?"**

"Even then sir." Alex huffed.

**Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed, and then said, "Yes — yes, you're right, of course. But how are the children getting here, Dumbledore?" She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding the twins underneath it.**

"**Hagrid's bringing them."**

"**You think it —**_**wise **_**— to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?"**

"I would trust Hagrid with my life." said Harry.

Hagrid beamed at him.

"**I would trust Hagrid with my life," said Dumbledore.**

'We all do,' said Ron solemnly but then thought back to the giant spiders. He shuddered.

"**I'm not saying his heart isn't in the right place," said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, "but you can't pretend he's not careless. He does tend to — what was that?"**

"What was what?" someone called from Hufflepuff table.

**A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky — and a huge motorcycle fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them.**

"I want one!" Lee yelled.

**If the motorcycle was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it.**

"Hagrid!" a Ravenclaw shouted.

**He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so **_**wild **_**— long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of trash can lids, and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.**

"**Hagrid," said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. "At last. And where did you get that motorcycle?"**

"**Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir," said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorcycle as he spoke. "Young Sirius Black lent it to me. I've got 'em, sir."**

_Sirius…_ The twins thought fondly. How Alex wanted to strangle Pettigrew that night but decided against it for harry and Sirius' sake. Now, she regretted it.

"**No problems, were there?"**

"**No, sir — house was almost destroyed, but I got 'em out all right before the Muggles started swarmin' around. They fell asleep as we was flyin' over Bristol, an' Hrry woudn' let go o' her."**

"Awww..." Ginny cooed, and Harry blushed.

**Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby girl, fast asleep, and a baby boy, who had his arms around her, also asleep.**

"Awww..." the Hall minus Slytherins, Snape and Umbridge chorused. Alex blushed a deep red and buried her face on the crook of Fred's neck. She blushed harder as she realized what she had just done.

Fred merely chuckled at her embarrassment and wrapped an arm around her.

**Under a tuft of jet-black hair over their foreheads they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning.**

"Bloody scar." Harry muttered.

"**Is that where —?" whispered Professor McGonagall.**

"**Yes," said Dumbledore. "They'll have those scars forever."**

"**Couldn't you do something about it, Dumbledore?"**

"**Even if I could, I wouldn't. ****Scars can come in handy.**

"Alex looked up. "How is our scars handy?"

**I have one myself above my left knee that is a perfect map of the London Underground.**

"Didn't need to know that sir." said Katie Bell.

**Well — give him here, Hagrid — we'd better get this over with."**

**Dumbledore took Harry in his arms and turned toward the Dursleys' house.**

"**Could I — could I say good-bye to 'em, sir?" asked Hagrid. He bent his great, shaggy head over Harry and gave him what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss and did the same to Alexis. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog.**

"Bet Padfoot would have taken offense to that." Alex whispered in Harry's ear. He snickered.

"**Shhh!" hissed Professor McGonagall, "You'll wake the Muggles!"**

"Yes, because a giant motorbike is just as quiet." Lavender Brown said sarcastically.

"**S-s-sorry," sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large, spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. "But I c-c-can't stand it —Lily an' James dead — an' poor little Harry an' Alexis off ter live with Muggles —"**

"Cue the next ten years of hell." Harry muttered. Hermione, Ginny, Ron, and the twins heard and frowned.

"**Yes, yes, it's all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we'll be found," Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm ****as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harry and Alex gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harry And Alex's blankets, and then came back to the other two.**

"WHAT?" Hermione shrieked, and people had to cover their ears. "You left them on the DOORSTEP!"

The Weasleys glowered.

**For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid's shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously, and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore's eyes seemed to have gone out.**

People shuddered. That was never a good sign.

"**Well," said Dumbledore finally, "that's that. We've no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations."**

"**Yeah," said Hagrid in a very muffled voice, "I best get this bike away. G'night, Professor McGonagall — Professor Dumbledore, sir."**

**Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself onto the motorcycle and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night.**

"**I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall," said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply.**

**Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once, and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four.**

"**Good luck, Harry, Alexis" he murmured.**

"We're going to need it." Alex muttered.

**He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak, he was gone.**

**A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harry's arms tightened around Alexis but neither woke up. Alex's small hand closed on the letter beside her and she and her brother slept on, not knowing they were special, not knowing they were famous, not knowing they would be woken in a few hours' time by Mrs. Dursley's scream**

The twins shuddered.

**as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that they would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by his cousin Dudley…**

_Not expecting anything less..._ they both thought.

**They couldn't know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: "To Harry and Alexis Potter — the children who lived!"**

And Umbridge stopped reading.

"That's the end of the chapter." She seemed very disappointed.

"I'll read next." said Professor McGonagall as she took the book and sat.

* * *

**Please review!**

**~Cassandra**


	2. The Vanishing Glass

**Chapter two, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

**"The Vanishing Glass," **read McGonagall.

Alex paled and Harry gulped nervously. They were going to hear about their home lives.

Snape noticed this and stared at them suspiciously. He didn't trust Harry, but Alex was a different story. She was still pale, and it made him at least a bit concerned.

**Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their nephew on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys' front door; it crept into their living room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr. Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-colored bonnets**

People snickered.

**but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large blond boy riding his first bicycle**

"Which he broke the moment he sat on it." Alex mused, and people around her snorted.

**, on a carousel at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that other children lived in the house, too.**

Snape blinked. No pictures of Potter being spoilt at home?

"Why were there no pictures of you two?" Hermione hissed.

Alex didn't answer and Harry shrugged.

**Yet Harry Potter was still there, asleep at the moment with his sister at his side,**

"You slept on the same bed?" asked Ron and the twins shrugged again.

**but not for long. Their Aunt Petunia was awake and it was her shrill voice that made the first noise of the day.**

Alex slammed her head on the table and Harry groaned.

"**Up! Get up! Now!"**

Some people winced.

**Harry woke with a start causing Alex to fall off the bed in surprise. His aunt rapped on the door again.**

"Give them a chance to wake up first!" Ginny huffed.

"**Up!" she screeched. Harry heard her walking toward the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the stove. He rolled onto his back and tried to remember the dream he had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorcycle in it. He had a funny feeling he'd had the same dream before.**

**Alex on the other hand was muttering profanities as she rubbed her sore side.**

More snickering.

**Their aunt was back outside the door.**

"**Are you up yet?" she demanded.**

"**Nearly," said Harry.**

"**Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon.**

"They made you cook?" Hermione said, dangerously calm. Alex shrugged.

"I'm a girl, I was supposed to learn anyway."

"Still! You were eleven!"

**And don't you dare let it burn, I wa****nt everything perfect on Duddy's birthday."**

**Alex groaned.**

"**What did you say?" his aunt snapped through the door.**

"They didn't say _anything_!" Fred snarled.

"**Nothing, nothing…"**

**Dudley's birthday — how could they have forgotten?**

"Simple: we don't care." Was Alex's reply as she looked up.

**Harry got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. Alex handed him a pair she pulled out from under their bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them.**

Ron shuddered. And Fred looked slightly guilty.

**The twins were used to spiders**

"Until second year. I never want to see those things again." Alex muttered. Ron snickered and Harry grinned.

People looked at them curiously, but they waved it off.

"Second book."

**, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them**

_Oh boy..._they thought.

**, and ****that was where they slept.**

Everything was silent, even Fred and George couldn't joke about that. Malfoy, who always wanted a chance to insult them, couldn't.

"You sleep WHERE?" Hermione roared.

"B-but we saw your b-bedroom - " Fred stuttered in shock.

"The b-bars on the windows - " said George.

"That was after we received our first Hogwarts letter." said Alex as she avoided the eyes of many.

Snape and McGonagall glared at Dumbledore.

"You said it was the best place for them!" McGonagall yelled.

"I... I didn't know." Dumbledore muttered.

Snape stayed silent but continued to glare at the Headmaster.

**When he was dressed he went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley's birthday presents.**

Harry and Alex scowled.

**It looked as though Dudley had gotten the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harry, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise**

"And I still don't know why he wanted that." Harry mused. Alex grinned.

"He broke that when he sat on it too." she said. A few people chuckled weakly.

**unless of course it involved punching somebody.**

"He better not mean you two." hissed Ginny.

**Dudley's favorite punching bag was Harry**

"All right, that's it." Sensing danger, Harry grabbed Ginny's hand and she calmed down almost immediately. Alex caught it, and glanced at them with a knowing grin.

Harry caught the grin and stuck his tongue out at her. Alex snickered.

People who didn't notice the exchange glanced at them curiously.

**, but he couldn't often catch him.**

"Well, there's that at least" Hermione muttered.

**Harry didn't look it, but he was very fast.**

"Youngest seeker in a century!" cheered Alicia.

**Then there was Alex.**

"He hits you too?" Fred snarled. Alex squeezed his hand again.

**Dudley always found ways to catch her,**

"WHAT?"

**but she somehow manages to slip away at the last minute.**

Cue laughter.

"Count on Alex to be the master of escape routes." George laughed.

Fred put an arm around her shoulders with a chuckle.

"Born chaser, this one."

Alex flushed but grinned nonetheless. She caught Harry's eye which glanced between her and Fred's arm around her shoulders. Alex stuck out her tongue and Harry grinned.

**Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard,**

People growled.

**but the twins had always been small and skinny for their age.**

"Scrawny gits." said Ron.

**They looked even smaller and skinnier than they really were because all they had to wear were old clothes of Dudley's,**

"They don't even but you new clothes?" asked Neville.

"Nope." said the twins.

**and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was.**

Alex snorted. "Understatement of the year." Harry snickered.

"Grows several inches every year - "

"Weighs several more pounds a month - "

"Eats twice as more every week - "

"Doesn't even exercise - "

" - if his life depended on it." they said.

People looked at them oddly. This was one of the rare times wherein they talked together and finished each other's sentences. Those who haven't heard them, were watching them with wide eyes. Even the Weasley twins were gaping.

"What?" they chorused again.

People began shaking their heads and turning back to McGonagall.

**Both had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair,**

"James." said Professor Flitwick.

**and bright green eyes.**

_Lily..._Snape thought.

**Harry wore round glasses held together with a lot of Scotch tape**

"Why?" asked Cho Chang.

**because of all the times Dudley had punched him on the nose.**

Alex growled.

**The only thing the twins liked about their own appearances was a very thin scar on their foreheads that was shaped like a bolt of lightning.**

"You two actually liked it?" Ron asked.

Harry tried to flatten his hair, while Alex looked at him bemusedly. She didn't need to flatten hers, as sher long bangs were already covering her scar.

"We didn't know how we got it back then." said Harry.

**They've had it as long as they could remember, and the first question they could ever remember asking their Aunt Petunia was how they had gotten it.**

"**In the car crash when your parents died,"**

"They _lied_ to you?" snarled Hermione.

Snape wanted to hex Petunia Dursley so badly.

**she had said. "And don't ask questions."**

"How will you learn?" asked Luna.

_**Don't ask questions **_**— that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys.**

"Quiet?" Harry mused.

**Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harry was turning over the bacon.**

"**Comb your hair!" he barked, by way of a morning greeting.**

"Not going to work!" Alex sang, and Harry slapped her on the arm.

**About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harry needed a haircut. Harry must have had more haircuts than the rest of the boys in his class put together, but it made no difference, his hair simply grew that way — all over the place.**

Alex laughed.

**Alex had no such problems, though.**

"Lucky you." Harry huffed.

**Alex was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes, and thick blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head.**

"Ew." said Parvarti Patil.

**Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel — Harry often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig.**

Fred and George beamed at Harry.

**Alex scolded him about that though -**

The Weasley twins, Hermione, Ron and Ginny gaped at her.

**because she said it was a great insult to pigs.**

Cue laughter.

"Who knew you two were so funny?" George laughed.

Harry and Alex wore matching grins.

**Alex put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn't much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell.**

"**Thirty-six," he said, looking up at his mother and father. "That's two less than last year."**

"_Thirty-six?"_ chocked Malfoy. "Even I don't get that many."

Harry and Alex looked at him with amused stares, and he flushed slightly.

"**Darling, you haven't counted Auntie Marge's present, see, it's here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy."**

"**All right, thirty-seven then," said Dudley, going red in the face. Harry, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down his bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over. And Alex glanced at him as she also ate, making sure he wouldn't choke.**

"Good idea, mate." Ron said. "Don't let the food go to waste."

"Trust Ron to worry about the food." Alex snorted.

Ron blushed as people snickered at him.

**Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger, too, because she said quickly, "And we'll buy you another **_**two **_**presents while we're out today. How's that, popkin? **_**Two **_**more presents. Is that all right?"**

**Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work.**

"Yeah, no kidding." commented Harry. People chuckled.

**Finally he said slowly, "So I'll have thirty… thirty…"**

"He can't even count!" said Professor Sprout disapprovingly.

"**Thirty-nine, sweetums," said Aunt Petunia.**

"**Oh." Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. "All right then."**

**Uncle Vernon chuckled.**

"**Little tyke wants his money's worth, just like his father. 'Atta boy, Dudley!" He ruffled Dudley's hair.**

"He's encouraging it!" Professor Sinistra huffed.

**At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harry and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a video camera, a remote control airplane, sixteen new computer games, and a VCR.**

"Muggle things" Hermione answered before any of the purebloods could ask.

**He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone looking both angry and worried.**

"**Bad news, Vernon," she said. "Mrs. Figg's broken her leg. She can't take them." She jerked her head in Harry and Alex's direction.**

"_They_ have names!" hissed Ginny.

**Dudley's mouth fell open in horror, but Harry's heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley's birthday, his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger restaurants, or the movies. Every year, Harry was left behind with Mrs. Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harry hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs. Figg made him look at photographs of all the cats she'd ever owned.**

Lavender wrinkled her nose at the mention of the smell of cabbage.

"**Now what?" said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at the twins as though they'd planned this.**

"Yes, because that's how we spend our days - "

" - plotting how to make them miserable." cried the Potter twins dramatically.

A few people snickered.

**Harry knew he ought to feel sorry that Mrs. Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn't easy when he reminded himself it would be a whole year before he had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr. Paws, and Tufty again.**

"Harry..." Hermione reprimanded.

**Alex really did feel sorry for her, just not for the cats.**

"Alex!" Hermione reached across the table and smacked her on the arm.

"I didn't write this!" Alex said as she rubbed her sore arm.

**"We could phone Marge," Uncle Vernon suggested.**

"**Don't be silly, Vernon, she hates the children, especially the girl."**

"Why I'm honored!" Alex cried out dramatically, and Harry burst out laughing.

A few people looked confused while others are snickering.

**The Dursleys often spoke about the twins like this, as though they weren't there — or rather, as though they were something very nasty that couldn't understand them, like a slug.**

Ginny huffed.

"**What about what's-her-name, your friend — Yvonne?"**

"**On vacation in Majorca," snapped Aunt Petunia.**

"**You could just leave me here," Harry put in hopefully (he'd be able to watch what he wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley's computer). ****Alex on the other hand, tried to look innocent but mentally thinking of ways to set traps in Dudley's room.**

Snape glanced at them in light shock. "That was very Slytherin of you, Potters."

The twins nervously glanced at each other. What would happen when their friends learned about their sorting?

**Aunt Petunia looked as though she'd just swallowed a lemon.**

"What was the difference?" asked Harry. People laughed.

"**And come back and find the house in ruins?" she snarled.**

"They won't blow up the house!" Ginny said indignantly.

**"We won't blow up the house," said Harry**

Harry and Ginny looked at each other and blushed.

**"Just Dudley's room." muttered Alex.**

A few Slytherins glanced at her with raised eyebrows, and she returned it with an innocent look.

**, but they weren't listening.**

"Of course." muttered Harry.

"**I suppose we could take him to the zoo," said Aunt Petunia slowly, "… and leave them in the car…"**

"That's child abuse!" cried McGonagall.

"**That car's new, they're not sitting in it alone…"**

**Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn't really crying — it had been years since he'd really cried — but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted.**

The twins glanced at Malfoy.

"**Dinky Duddydums**

There was a moment of silence in the Great Hall, before the burst into uncontrollable fits of of laughter.

"Dinky Duddydums!" gasped Lee.

"P-poor kid!" busted Seamus.

"Makes...me...feel almost..sorry for..him!" said teen through fits of laughter.

**, don't cry, Mummy won't let him spoil your special day!" she cried, flinging her arms around him.**

"**I… don't… want… him… t-t-to come!" Dudley yelled between huge, pretend sobs. "He always sp-spoils everything!" He shot Harry a nasty grin through the gap in his mother's arms.**

"Awful child!" McGonagall sniffed.

**Just then, the doorbell rang — "Oh, good Lord, they're here!" said Aunt Petunia frantically — and a moment later, Dudley's best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people's arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once.**

**As soon as he entered the room, Pier glanced at Alex and winked. Harry thought Alex was going to be sick, seeing as she had gone extremely pale.**

Fred growled and pulled Alex closer to him possessively.

**Half an hour later, the twins, who couldn't believe their luck, were sitting in the back of the Dursleys' car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in their lives. Their aunt and uncle hadn't been able to think of anything else to do with them, but before they'd left, Uncle Vernon had taken the twins aside.**

"**I'm warning you," he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harry's,**

"Eww!" Most girls squealed.

"**I'm warning you now, boy, girl — any funny business, anything at all — and you'll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas."**

"Did he mean it?" asked Fred as he tightened his hold on Alex.

She shook her head. "No." she said unconcernedly. "It was just another empty threat."

Fred frowned. "Alex..."

"Seriously Fred," she looked up at him with a small smile. "I'm alright."

Fred hesitated, but left it... for now.

"**We're not going to do anything," said Alex, "honestly…"**

**But Uncle Vernon didn't believe them. No one ever did.**

**The problem was, strange things often happened around the twins and it was just no good telling the Dursleys they didn't make them happen.**

**Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harry coming back from the barbers looking as though he hadn't ****been at all, had taken a pair of kitchen scissors and cut his hair so short he was almost bald except for his bangs, which she left "to hide that horrible scar."**

Ginny growled.

**Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harry, who spent a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where he was already laughed at for his baggy clothes and taped glasses. Next morning, however, he had gotten up to find his hair exactly as it had been before Aunt Petunia had sheared it off.**

"The unbeatable Potter hair." Ron grinned and looked at Alex.

"You don't have it though." he said and Alex nodded.

"I know, thank Merlin."

**He had been given a week in his cupboard for this, even though he had tried to explain that he **_**couldn't **_**explain how it had grown back so quickly.**

"Petunia knows about accidental magic." muttered Snape in disdain.

**Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force Alex into a revolting old sweater of Dudley's (brown with orange puff balls).**

"Bet it makes you think twice about your, eh Ron?" Alex mused as she saw the redhead turn a light shade of green. Ron nodded.

**The harder she tried to pull it over her head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a hand puppet, but certainly wouldn't fit Alex. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to her great relief, Alex wasn't punished.**

"Good." George breathed.

**On the other hand, she'd gotten into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens.**

Harry glanced at her. "You never told me about that."

Alex shrugged. "Never came up."

**Harry was at the nurse's office, due to his broken nose. Dudley's gang decided to turn to Alex as their punching bag, and Pier hoping he could steal a kiss from her,**

"You never told me about that either!" Harry growled. Hermione and Ginny looked flabbergasted, and the Weasley twins and Ron looked murderous.

Alex gulped.

**and to Alex's surprise as anyone else's, there she was sitting on the chimney.**

"Cool!" yelled Seamus and Dean.

The teacher's shared a look. It was powerful accidental magic.

**The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from the twin's headmistress telling them Alex had been climbing school buildings. But all she'd tried to do (as she shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of his cupboard) was jump behind the big trash cans outside the kitchen doors. Alex supposed that the wind must have caught her in mid-jump.**

"We need to teach you how to lie better." said George.

"Give me a break. I was seven!"

**But today, nothing was going to go wrong.**

"You jinxed it!" cried Lee.

**It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn't school, their cupboard, or Mrs. Figg's cabbage-smelling living room.**

**While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harry, the council, Alex, the bank, Alex and Harry were just a few of his favorite subjects.**

"He likes to complain about you two." said Ginny.

**This morning, it was motorcycles.**

"… **roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums," he said, as a motorcycle overtook them.**

"**I had a dream about a motorcycle," said Harry, remembering suddenly. "It was flying."**

A lot of people in the hall groaned.

"Give me a break!" cried Harry. "I was ten!"

**Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harry, his face like a gigantic beet with a mustache:**

"Eww."

"**MOTORCYCLES DON'T FLY!"**

**Dudley and Piers sniggered. Alex glared at the furiously; and they shut up at once.**

"You do look scary when you're angry." Ron snickered, and Alex glared at him. He shut up.

Fred leaned in and whispered in her ear. "You're bloody hot when you're angry you know that?"

Alex chuckled. "You're the first to think so."

"**I know they don't," said Harry. "It was only a dream."**

**But he wished he hadn't said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than his asking questions, it was his talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn't, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon — they seemed to think he might get dangerous ideas.**

The twins shared a grin.

**It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought**** Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harry and Alex what they wanted before the Dursleys could hurry them away, and bought them cheap lemon ice pops.**

"It was actually okay." Harry said.

**It wasn't bad, either, Harry thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head who looked remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn't blond.**

The Hall roared with laughter.

**Alex scolded him again - **

The hall fell silent and gaped at Alex.

**telling him he shouldn't insult the animals, and that the gorilla was a genius compared to Dudley.**

People burst out laughing again

"You two need to come pranking with us!" Fred gasped as he clutched his sides.

"And Merlin" gasped Goerge. "never give up that sense of humor!"

**Harry and Alex had the best morning he'd had in a long time. They careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunchtime, wouldn't fall back on their favorite hobby of hitting them.**

Hermione growled.

**They ate in the zoo restaurant, and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory didn't have enough ice cream on top, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and the twins were allowed to finish the first.**

**They both felt, afterward, that they should have known it was all too good to last.**

**After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in there, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone.**** Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon's car and crushed it into a trash can — but at the moment it didn't look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep.**

**Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass****, staring at the glistening brown coils.**

"**Make it move," he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn't budge.**

"**Do it again," Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on.**

"**This is boring," Dudley moaned. He shuffled away.**

**Harry and Alex moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. They wouldn't have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself — no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up; at least he got to visit the rest of the house.**

"Why are you two comparing yourselves to a snake?" Ron asked. And the twins merely shrugged.

**The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with the twin's.**

_**It winked.**_

"Snakes don't have eyelids." Hermione commented in suspicion.

**Harry stared, and Alex looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren't. She looked back at the snake and winked, too.**

**The snake jerked its head toward Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It**** gave Harry and Alex a look that said quite plainly:**

"_**I get that all the time."**_

"**I know," Harry murmured through the glass, though he wasn't sure the snake could hear him. "It must be really annoying."**

**The snake nodded vigorously.**

"You two are mental, conversing with a snake." Ron said with a shake of his head.

"We know." the two chorused.

"**Where do you come from, anyway?" Alex asked.**

**The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harry peered at it.**

**Boa Constrictor, Brazil.**

"**Was it nice there?"**

**The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Alex read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. "Oh, I see — so you've never been to Brazil?"**

Ron felt the urge to face-palm.

**As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind the twins made both of them jump. "DUDLEY! MR. DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT'S DOING!"**

**Dudley came waddling toward them as fast as he could.**

"You made him sound like a penguin." commented Neville.

Alex shook her head. "Can't be, penguins are cute, Dud doesn't fit the description." A few people snickered.

"**Out of the way, you," he said, punching Harry in the ribs.**

Ginny hissed.

**Caught by surprise, Harry tripped over Alex and both fell hard on the concrete floor.**

Growls echoed in the Hall.

**What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened — one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror.**

"What did you do? Fred asked excitedly. Alex shook her head with a smile.

"You'll see."

**Harry quickly rolled off Alex, sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor's tank had vanished.**

"Brilliant!" the Weasley twins cheered.

"If only they would put as much effort in classes." Snape commented dryly.

"But there aren't any snakes in your classes, Professor." Alex grinned.

**The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out onto the floor. People throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits.**

**As the snake slid swiftly past him, Harry and Alex could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, **_**"Brazil, here I come… Thanksss, amigos."**_

"I wonder if he ever made it to Brazil?"Harry wondered.

**The keeper of the reptile house was in shock.**

"**But the glass," he kept saying, "where did the glass go?"**

"Stupid muggle." Malfoy sneered, but was ignored.

**The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong, sweet tea while he apologized over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as the twins have seen, the snake hadn't done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed****, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon's car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers ****was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harry at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, "Harry and Alex were talking to it, weren't you?"**

"Dear Merlin..." Hermione muttered.

**Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on the twins. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, "Go — cupboard — stay — no meals," before he collapsed into a chair, and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.**

"What does he mean by _no meals?_" McGonagall hissed.

"He didn't mean it!" Alex said quickly.

"He was bluffing!" Harry said at the same time.

Snapped narrowed his eyes at them. They were lying, he knew it.

**Harry and Alex laid in their dark cupboard much later, Harry wishing he had a watch. He didn't know what time it was and he couldn't be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, he and Alex couldn't risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food.**

"So that's how you two are so good in sneaking around." Ron mused and the twins smirked.

**They have lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years**

Dumbledore winced. He should have listened to Minerva.

**, as long as they could remember, ever since they were babies and their parents had died in that car crash. They couldn't remember being in the car when their parents had died.**

"Because it wasn't a car crash." said Professor Sinistra.

**Sometimes, when they strained their memories during long hours in their cupboard, Harry came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on his forehead.**

Everyone fell silent.

"You-you remember that?" Madam Hooch stuttered.

**Alex's wasn't any better. Besides the flash of green light, she could hear someone screaming. It sounded like a woman screaming.**

"W-what?" Madam Pomfrey gasped

_Lily..._ Snape thought again.

Everyone stared at the twins, who pointedly ignored the looks. Harry remained silent in his seat, and Alex was stiff in Fred's arms.

**This, they supposed, was the crash, though they couldn't imagine where all the green light came from.**

More growls.

**They couldn't remember their parents at all. Their aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course they were forbidden to ask questions.**

The Ravenclaws scowled.

**There were no photographs of them in the house.**

**When he had been younger, Harry had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take them away, but it had never happened; ****the Dursleys were their only family.**

"That's not true." said Hermione.

"Yeah, mate. You've got us." Ron added.

"And mom already considers you two family." Ginny nodded.

Harry and Alex smiled gratefully at them.

**Yet sometimes they thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know them. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to Harry once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley.**

Alex snickered and Harry slapped her arm.

**After asking Harry furiously if he knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at Alex once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken their hands in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second wither Harry or Alex tried to get a closer look.**

"Apparition." Hermione said.

"We know that now." Harry pointed out.

**At school, the twins had no one but each other. Everybody knew that Dudley's gang hated that odd Harry Potter in his baggy old clothes and broken glasses, or Alex with her odd persona**

"Oi!"

**and smart remarks, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley's gang.**

"That's the end of the chapter." said McGonagall. "Who's going to read next?"

"I will." said Dumbledore, summoning the book over to his hands.

* * *

**Hope you guys liked this chapter!**

**~Cassandra**


	3. The Letters From No One

**Chapter three, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

'**The Letters From No One**,' Dumbledore read out.

**The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned the twins their longest-ever punishment. By the time they were allowed out of their cupboard again, the summer holidays had started**

"And when is Dudley's birthday?" Hermione demanded.

Harry and Alex shared a look.

"When is his birthday?" Hermione asked louder. By now, everyone was listening.

"June 23rd" Alex reluctantly answered and Fred stiffened beside her.

"A month." he muttered.

"Fred..."

"They kept you in there for a MONTH?" he roared and tightened his grip on her a little too much. Alex winced.

"Fred... that hurts."

Fred looked at her and his fierce gaze softened, his grip loosening.

"Sorry, love." Alex gave a small smile and pecked him on the cheek.

"I'm fine, Fred. But thanks for caring anyway."

Fred grinned widely.

Hermione, Ron, Harry and Ginny smiled knowingly at the two.

**and Dudley had already broken his new video camera, crashed his remote control airplane, and, first time out on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs. Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches.**

Professor McGonagall huffed angrily.

**The twins glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley's gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm, and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader.**

"Interesting logic..." Snape drawled.

**The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley's favorite sport: Potter Hunting.**

There were a few growls in the Hall.

Snape clenched his jaw. This reminded him too much of his own childhood.

**This was why Harry and Alex spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where they could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came they would be going off to secondary school together and, for the first time in their lives, they wouldn't be with Dudley. ****Dudley had been accepted at Uncle Vernon's old private school, Smeltings.**

Many Gryffindors snorted.

**Piers Polkiss was going there too. The twins, on the other hand, were going to Stonewall High, the local public school. Dudley thought this was very funny.**

"These people have no sense of humor." George said, deadpanned.

"No sense of sarcasm either." Harry snorted.

"**They stuff people's heads down the toilet the first day at Stonewall," he told the twins. "Want to come upstairs and practice?"**

"**No, thanks," said Harry.**

**"The poor toilet's never had anything as horrible as your head down it — " said Alex.**

**"It might be sick." They finished.**

People busted out laughing, while a few looked at the twins amusedly.

"Even when you insult someone - you finish each other's sentences." Ron said as he shook his head, but grinned nevertheless.

**Then they ran, before Dudley could work out what they'd said.**

"Really Potter? Running?" Pansy Parkinson sneered. "I thought Gryffindors were supposed to be brave."

"Shut it, Parkinson." Alex growled and Fred tried to whisper words of comfort in her ear.

**One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving the twins at Mrs. Figg's. Mrs. Figg wasn't as bad as usual. It turned out she'd broken her leg tripping over one of her cats, and she didn't seem quite as fond of them as before.**

"Bloody cats..." Alex muttered, and Hermione reached across the table and smacked her arm.

"Ow! Stop it 'Mione!"

**She let Harry watch television and gave Alex a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she'd had it for several years.**

Alex gagged and Harry snickered.

**That evening, Dudley paraded around the living room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings' boys wore maroon tailcoats****, orange knickerbockers**

Lavender and Parvarti looked ill at the description.

**, and flat straw hats called boaters.**

The Weasley twins and Lee Jordan were having laughing fits.

**They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren't looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life.**

"How is that supposed to be good training?" Madam Pomfrey sniffed.

**As he looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the**** proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn't believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins**

More snickers.

**, he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harry didn't trust himself to speak. He thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh. Alex even bit her lip to prevent the grin threatening to grace her features.**

The twins had no such restraints now, and both burst into fits of laughter.

"He-he looked ridiculous!" Harry gasped. Alex couldn't speak, she just kept laughing.

A few people snickered at them.

**There was a horrible smell in the kitchen the next morning when Harry and Alex went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. Harry went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in gray water.**

"**What's this?" he asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question.**

"**Your new school uniform," she said.**

**Alex scrunched her nose at the horrid smell. ****Harry looked in the bowl again.**

"**Oh," he said, "I didn't realize it had to be so wet."**

People snickered.

**"Or so hideous." piped Alex.**

People busted out laughing.

"Sarcasm doesn't work on her, Potter." said Snape.

"**Don't be stupid," snapped Aunt Petunia. "I'm dyeing some of Dudley's old things gray for you. It'll look just like everyone else's when I've finished."**

"For some reason, I doubt that," Ginny scoffed.

**Harry seriously doubted this**

Harry and Ginny blushed and Alex flashed her brother a smug grin. He smacked her on the arm._  
_

"Oi! What is it? Pick-on-Alex day?"

**, but thought it best not to argue.**

**He sat down at the table and tried not to think about how he and Alex were going to look on their first day at Stonewall High — like they were wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably.**

Ron cast a sympathetic look at his best friend.

**Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from the twins' new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smelting stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table.**

"I just realized something." said Seamus.

"What?" Dean asked.

"He bangs his stick." Seamus grinned.

Most boys grinned, the girls looked disgusted and the teachers were unamused.

**They heard the click of the mail slot and flop of letters on the doormat.**

"**Get the mail, Dudley," said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper.**

'"They made the tub of lard actually do something?" Hermione mock gasped.

People snickered.

"**Make Harry get it."**

"Oh"

"**Get the mail, Harry."**

"**Make Dudley get it."**

"**Poke him with your Smelting stick, Dudley."**

**Harry dodged the Smelting stick and went to get the mail. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon's sister Marge, who was vacationing on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill, and — **_**a letter for Harry and Alex**_**.**

**Harry picked it up and stared at it, his heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in their whole lives, had written to them. Who would?**

"Ginny would."

"Fred would." were the murmurs along the Gryffindor table. And the two Weasleys were as red as their hair.

Harry held Ginny's hand and smiled, which made her blush harder.

Alex gave Fred another peck on the cheek.

**They had no friends, no other relatives — they didn't belong to the library, so they'd never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake:**

_**Mr. H. Potter**_

_**The Cupboard under the Stairs**_

_**4 Privet Drive**_

_**Little Whinging**_

_**Surrey**_

**The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp.**

**Turning the envelope over, his hand trembling, Harry saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion**

The Gryffindors cheered.

**, an eagle**

"Ravenclaw!" yelled the Ravenclaws.

**, a badger**

The Hufflepuffs cheered.

**, and a snake**

Absolute silence.

**surrounding a large letter **_**H**_**.**

"Hogwarts!"

"**Hurry up, boy!" shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. "What are you doing, checking for letter bombs?" He chuckled at his own joke.**

"Dear Merlin" Alex facepalmed and Harry mock gasped.

"He murdered comedy!" Harry cried dramatically. Cue laughs.

**Harry went back to the kitchen, still staring at his letter. He handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down, and slowly began to open the yellow envelope. Alex saw and quickly rushed to his side and Harry handed her the letter addressed to her.**

**_Ms. A. Potter_  
**

_**The Cupboard under the Stairs**_

_**4 Privet Drive**_

_**Little Whinging**_

_**Surrey**_

**Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust, and flipped over the postcard.**

"**Marge's ill," he informed Aunt Petunia. "Ate a funny whelk…"**

The twins snorted.

"**Dad!" said Dudley suddenly. "Dad, Harry and Alex's got something!"**

"I'm going to murder that brat." hissed Ginny.

**Harry was on the point of unfolding his letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of his hand by Uncle Vernon.**

"Oi!" yelled Colin Creevey.

**Alex had already opened it, and managed to catch the words: _Hogwarts_ and _witchcraft_ before the letter was snatched from her.**

"You got more than I did, though." said Harry.

**"Hey, give it back!" cried Alex as she reached for it.**

**"That's _ours_!"said Harry, trying to snatch it back.**

"**Who'd be writing to you?" sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn't stop there. Within seconds it was the grayish white of old porridge.**

The twins laughed again as they remembered how their uncle had looked.

"**P-P-Petunia!" he gasped.**

**Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise.**

"**Vernon! Oh my goodness — Vernon!"**

"Drama Queen." muttered Malfoy. Unfortunately, the twins heard.

"Look who's talking." Harry retorted.

Alex pretended to clear her throat and made her voice a few pitched higher. "Oh no, it's killed me! My father will hear about this!" she said and pretended to faint in Fred's arms, the latter chuckling as he caught her.

Many chuckled at this and Malfoy glared furiously at them.

**They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that the twins and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn't used to being ignored.**

"Poor Duddykins." muttered Ginny bitterly.

**He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smelting stick.**

"No! Don't make him lose any more brain cells!" a Ravenclaw yelled, and people laughed.

"**I want to read that letter," he said loudly**.

"He doesn't have the right to!" hissed Hermione.

**"You don't have the right to!" Alex yelled at her cousin angrily.**

Alex and Hermione shared smirks.

**" _We _want to read it," said Harry furiously, "as it's _ours_****."**

"Ah the Potter temper." mused Ron and he turned to Harry and Alex. "Something you both strongly have in common."

"Is it that bad? I find it rather amusing." said Fred and a few other people from all houses snorted.

"Mate," said Seamus. "You've never been on the receiving end of their tempers, have you?"

Fred and George shook their heads.

"It's worse than Ginny's Bat-Bogey hex." The Weasley twins seemed to pale.

"**Get out, all of you," croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope.**

**The twins didn't move.**

"Any second now." muttered Ron.

"**WE WANT OUR LETTERS!" they shouted.**

Most people who have been on the receiving end, especially those who have been hexed by Alex and yelled at by Harry shuddered.

"**Let **_**me **_**see it!" demanded Dudley.**

"**OUT!" roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harry and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, while Aunt Petunia grabbed Alex's arm and threw her out the room**

Many people snarled at the book in Dumbledore's hands, who pretended to ignore the scathing glared of Snape and McGonagall.

**, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harry and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harry, his glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on his stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor.**

"Scrawny git." said Ron.

**Alex rolled her eyes at them,**

Snape was strongly reminded of Lily.

**and stood on a chair to see from the top of the door.**

"**Vernon," Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, "look at the address — how could they possibly know where he sleeps? You don't think they're watching the house?"**

"Paranoid." snickered Angelina.

"**Watching — spying — might be following us," muttered Uncle Vernon wildly.**

**"Who on earth would spy on these boring twats?" Alex whispered and Harry tried to stop the grin that threatened to show.**

"**But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don't want —"**

**Harry could see Uncle Vernon's shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen.**

"**No," he said finally. "No, we'll ignore it. If they don't get an answer… Yes, that's best… we won't do anything…"**

"Not going to work!" Fred and George sang.

"**But —"**

"**I'm not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn't we swear when we took him in we'd stamp out that dangerous nonsense?"**

There was an eerie silence in the Hall.

"_Stamp. Out?_" Hermione snarled.

"What did they mean by that?" McGonagall demanded as she stared at the twins fidgeting uncomfortably in their seats.

"Nothing." Harry muttered.

"Do they hit you, Potter?" hissed Snape.

When neither answered, McGonagall rounded on Dumbledore.

"How could you not know about this?" she yelled. "The best place for them, you said! They are being abused!"

Fred tightened his hold around Alex.

"Why didn't you tell us?" asked George.

"Never came up." both twins muttered.

**That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he'd never done before; he visited the twins in their cupboard.**

"How did he fit?" Ron exclaimed.

Alex shook her head with a frown as she tried to remember, while Harry looked thoughtful.

"Good point." he said. "But I think he barely got his head passed though."

"**Where's our letters?" said Harry, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. "Who's writing to us?"**

"**No one. It was addressed to you by mistake," said Uncle Vernon shortly. "I have burned it."**

"Oi!" yelled Katie.

"**It was **_**not **_**a mistake," said Alex angrily, "it had our cupboard on it."**

"You tell him!" Lee cheered.

"**SILENCE!" yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling.**

Ron, Harry and Alex shuddered.

**He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful.**

"Hope it was," said Ginny scathingly.

"**Er — yes, you two — about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking… you're really getting a bit big for it… we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley's second bedroom.**

More silence.

"_Second. bedroom?_" McGonagall snarled.

Snape scooted away from her.

"**Why?" said Harry.**

"Why are you questioning it?" asked Alicia.

"We were suspicious." answered Alex.

"It's not everyday they do something nice, so there had to be a catch." said Harry.

"**Don't ask questions!" snapped their uncle. "Take this stuff upstairs, now."**

**The Dursleys' house had four bedrooms:**

There seemed to be an uproar in Gryffindor table, and the twins tried to calm down their friends.

Snape sat with his jaw clenched.

**one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon's sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept, and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn't fit into his first bedroom.**

"_Two. bedrooms..._" McGonagall hissed.

**It only took the twins one trip upstairs to move everything they owned from the cupboard to this room.**

Ron glanced at the twins guiltily. He had complained so many times about his hand me down belongings, when the twins never did.

**They sat down on the bed and stared around. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old video camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over the next door neighbor's dog; in the corner was Dudley's first-ever television set, which he'd put his foot through when his favorite program had been canceled; ****there was a large birdcage, which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it.**

"That was a waste." Alex snickered.

**Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they'd never been touched, and Alex was happy to read each one of them.**

"Merlin..." Fred and George groaned.

"Oh shut up!" Alex said as she punched Fred lightly on the shoulder.

**From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother, "I don't **_**want **_**them in there… I **_**need **_**that room**

"No, he does not!" Cho snarled.

… **make them get out…"**

**Harry sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday he'd have given anything to be up here. Today he'd rather be back in his cupboard with that letter than up here without it.**

**Alex on the other hand sat up, confused. What was Hogwarts? And what did it have to with witchcraft?**

"No fair! You were already piecing it together!" Harry whined.

**Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock.**

'"Good," said Madam Pomfrey approvingly.

**He'd screamed, whacked his father with his Smelting stick**

"Horrible!" huffed Professor Sprout.

**, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother**

"Argh!" said Lavender.

**, and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof, and he still didn't have his room back.**

"Good." Ginny snarled.

**Harry was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing he'd opened the letter in the hall, while Alex wished she had read it faster. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.**

**When the mail arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to the twins, made Dudley go and get it.**

"More like making sure they never get their letter." muttered Hermione.

**They heard him banging things with his Smelting stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, "There's another one! 'Ms. A. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive —'"**

"If he wanted to read it, why did he say that?" said Dean, and they were mutters around the Hall.

**With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harry and Alex right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact that Harry had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind and Alex attempted to reach for the letter while their uncle was distracted.**

The famous quartet burst into peals of laughter.

"I see you had practice mate!" Ron gasped.

Harry laughed harder. "The neck was the same size too."

Alex and Hermione kept on laughing while others in the Hall just looked confused.

**After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smelting stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath****, with Harry's letter clutched in his hand.**

"**Go to your cupboard — I mean, your bedroom," he wheezed at Harry. "Dudley — go — just go."**

More laughter.

**Harry walked round and round his new room, while Alex sat on the bed, reading. Someone knew they had moved out of their cupboard and they seemed to know they hadn't received their first letters. Surely that meant they'd try again? And this time Harry'd make sure they didn't fail. He had a plan.**

"Oh no." Ron said as he buried his face in his hands.

"What wrong with my plans?" Harry pouted

"No offense Harry but - " Hermione was cut off.

"You work better under pressure, mate."

**As soon as he had told Alex about it, she groaned and protested.**

**"Whatever you're planning this time, leave me out of it." she said.**

Harry huffed. "Some twin you are, Alex."

Alex rolled her eyes but grinned.

**The repaired alarm clock rang at six o'clock the next morning. Harry turned it off quickly and dressed silently. He mustn't wake the Dursleys. He stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.**

**He was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. His heart hammered as he crept across the dark hall toward the front door —**

"Hypothetically speaking, that is a pretty good plan." said Luna.

"**AAAAARRRGH!"**

**Harry leapt into the air; he'd trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat — something **_**alive**_**!**

**Lights clicked on upstairs and to his horror Harry realized that the big, squashy something had been his uncle's face.**

People burst out laughing.

**Alex had heard their uncle scream, and quickly pulled Harry back upstairs before their uncle could yell at him.**

"You have brilliant danger sense, you know that?" said Ron.

"You would have been spider food if I didn't."

**"What happened?" she asked. Harry explained his previous plan and what just occurred.**

**"Yes! Payback!" Alex cheered, and Harry chuckled at her antics.**

So did the rest of the hall.

**Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harry didn't do exactly what he'd been trying to do. He went up to the twins' room and shouted at Harry for about half an hour and then told him to go and make a cup of tea. Harry shuffled miserably off into the kitchen - Alex following - and by the time he got back, the mail had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon's lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.**

"**I want —" he began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into ****pieces before his eyes.**

"Git." Ron hissed.

**Uncle Vernon didn't go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the mail slot.**

"**See," he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, "if they can't **_**deliver **_**them they'll just give up."**

"**I'm not sure that'll work, Vernon."**

"For once, she speaks sense." drawled Snape.

"**Oh, these people's minds work in strange ways****, Petunia, they're not like you and me," said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock in a nail with the piece of fruitcake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.**

"Thank Merlin for that." sneered Malfoy.

**On Friday, no less than twelve letters arrived for the twins. As they couldn't go through the mail slot they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides, and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs bathroom.**

**Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters****, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed "Tiptoe Through the Tulips" as he worked, and jumped at small noises.**

"Paranoid!" Fred and George sang.

**On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to the twins found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living room window.**

The twins snorted.

**While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food processor.**

"**Who on earth wants to talk to **_**you **_**this badly?" Dudley asked Alex in amazement.**

"Loads of people!" said Lee.

"Like Ginny."

"And Fred." A few people snickered.

**On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.**

"That's never a good sign." Sighed Alex.

"**No post on Sundays," he reminded them cheerfully as he spread marmalade on his newspapers**

Hermione snorted. "Marmalade on newspapers? Wonder what that tastes like."

**, "no damn letters today —"**

"Stupid muggle." sneered Pansy.

**Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head.**

**Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets.**

"Bloody brilliant." Seamus said with a grin.

**The Dursleys ducked, but Harry leapt into the air trying to catch one —**

"Born seeker." Angelina smiled.

**While Alex tried to snatch one while avoiding her Aunt and Uncle's grasps.**

"Chaser." Katie said proudly.

**"Out! OUT!"**

**Uncle Vernon seized Harry and Alex around their waists and threw them into the hall.**

Growls ripped through the Hall, minus the Slytherins.

**When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.**

"**That does it," said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tufts out of his mustache at the same time.**

"Idiot." sneered Snape.

"**I want you all back here in five minutes ready to leave. We're going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!"**

**He looked so dangerous with half his mustache missing that no one dared argue.**

Harry and Alex busted out laughing. Their uncle had looked absolutely ridiculous.

**Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding toward the highway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, VCR, and computer in his sports bag.**

**They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn't dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turn and drive in the opposite direction for a while.**

"**Shake 'em off… shake 'em off," he would mutter whenever he did this.**

"Merlin, he's really lost it." Neville said with a shake of his head.

"Can't lose what you never had, Nev." snickered Alex and Neville grinned.

"True."

**They didn't stop to eat or drink all day.**

Madam Pomfrey scowled, and glanced at the twins. They were much too skinny for their age.

**By nightfall Dudley was howling. He'd never had such a bad day in his life.**

"Welcome to Harry and Alex's life." hissed Alicia.

**He was hungry, he'd missed five television programs he'd wanted to see, and he'd never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer.**

**Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and the twins shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harry and Alex stayed awake, sitting on opposite sides of the windowsill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering…**

"Wondering about what?" asked Dean.

"What was going on at the time." said Harry.

"What Hogwarts was." said Alex.

**They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast the next day.**

Ron looked scandalized. "That's not breakfast!"

**They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.**

"'**Scuse me, but is any of you Mr. H. Potter or Ms. A. Potter? Only I got about an 'undred of these at the front desk."**

**She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:**

_**Mr. H. Potter**_

_**Room 17**_

_**Railview Hotel**_

_**Cokeworth**_

**And the other one read:**

_**Ms. A. Potter**_

_**Room 17**_

_**Railview Hotel**_

_**Cokeworth**_

**Harry made a grab for the letter but Uncle Vernon knocked his hand out of the way.**

"Git." said George and began to scribble down on a piece of parchment.

**The woman stared.**

"**I'll take them," said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining room.**

"**Wouldn't it be better just to go home, dear?" Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later****, but Uncle Vernon didn't seem to hear her.**

**Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car, and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a plowed field, halfway across a suspension bridge, and at the top of a multilevel parking garage.**

"**Daddy's gone mad, hasn't he?" Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon.**

"He's probably off his rocker if his dimwitted son could sense it." mused Cho.

**Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car, and disappeared.**

**It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivel****led.**

"**It's Monday," he told his mother. "The Great Humberto's on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a **_**television**_**."**

**Monday. This reminded Harry of something. If it **_**was **_**Monday — and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days the week, because of television — then tomorrow, Tuesday, was Harry and Alex's eleventh birthday.**

"Happy Birthday!" yelled Fred and George.

Alex giggled and Harry just shook his head.

**Of course, their birthdays were never exactly fun — last year, the Dursleys had given them a coat hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon's old socks.**

George was scribbling on his parchment again.

**Still, you weren't eleven every day.**

**Uncle Vernon was back and he was smiling.**

"Again, never a good sign." muttered Harry.

**He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn't answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he'd bought.**

"**Found the perfect place!" he said. "Come on! Everyone out!"**

**It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out at sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there.**

"**Storm forecast for tonight!" said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. "And this gentleman's kindly agreed to lend us his boat!"**

**A toothless old man came ambling up to them, pointing, with a rather wicked grin, at an old rowboat bobbing in the iron-gray water below them.**

"**I've already got us some rations," said Uncle Vernon, "so all aboard!"**

**It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces.**

McGonagall scowled even more.

**After what seemed like hours they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house.**

**The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls, and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms.**

**Uncle Vernon's rations turned out to be a bag of chips each and four bananas.**

"Those aren't rations!" snarled Madam Pomfrey.

**He tried to start a fire but the empty chip bags just smoked and shriveled up.**

"**Could do with some of those letters now, eh?" he said cheerfully.**

**He was in a very good mood. Obviously he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver mail. Harry privately agreed, though the thought didn't cheer him up at all.**

"Such a pessimist." said Ginny.

**As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia found a few moldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door, and the twins were left to find the softest bit of floor they could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket.**

**The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harry nor Alex couldn't sleep. They shivered and turned over, trying to get comfortable, stomachs rumbling with hunger.**

More growls.

**Dudley's snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley's watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harry he'd be eleven in ten minutes' time. He lay and watched his birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter writer was now.**

**Five minutes to go. Harry heard something creak outside. He hoped the roof wasn't going to fall in, although he might be warmer if it did.**

Alex looked at her brother strangely.

**Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that he'd be able to steal one somehow.**

**Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?**

**One minute to go and they'd be eleven. Thirty seconds… twenty… ten… nine — maybe they'd wake Dudley up, just to annoy him**

"DO IT!" yelled the Weasley twins and Lee.

— **three… two… one…**

**"Happy Birthday Harry" Alex whispered.**

**"Happy Birthday Alex." Harry smiled.**

**BOOM.**

"What?"

**The whole shack shivered and both bolted upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.**

"And that id the end of the chapter." announced Dumbledore. "Who shall read next?"

"I will." called Professor Flitwick as he levitated the book towards him.

* * *

**Hope you guys liked this chapter and please review!**

**~Cassandra**


	4. The Keeper of the Keys

**Finally, the fourth chapter! I hope you guys like this one!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

"**The Keeper of the Keys**," Flitwick read.

Most people looked over at Hagrid.

**BOOM. They knocked again. Dudley jerked awake.**

"**Where's the cannon?" he said stupidly.**

"What was the difference?" said Harry indignantly.

**There was a crash behind them and Uncle Vernon came skidding into the room. He was holding a rifle in his hands – now they knew what had been in the long, thin package he had brought with them.**

"He brought a GUN!" snarled Hermione.

"**Who's there?" he shouted. "I warn you — I'm armed!"**

"Aren't we all?" asked Blaise.

"It means he has a weapon." said Hermione.

Malfoy sneered. "What do you think our wands are for, Granger?"

**There was a pause. Then —**

**SMASH!**

**The door was hit with such force that it swung clean off its hinges and with a deafening crash landed flat on the floor.**

**A giant of a man was standing in the doorway. His face was almost completely hidden by a long, shaggy mane of hair and a wild, tangled beard, but you could make out his eyes, glinting like black beetles under all the hair.**

Three out of four houses cheered, while Umbridge scowled.

**The giant squeezed his way into the hut, stooping so that his head just brushed the ceiling. He bent down, picked up the door, and fitted it easily back into its frame. The noise of the storm outside dropped a little. He turned to look at them all.**

"**Couldn't make us a cup o' tea, could yeh? It's not been an easy journey…"**

"Trust Hagrid to be casual about this." Fred said.

**He strode over to the sofa where Dudley sat frozen with fear.**

"**Budge up, yeh great lump," said the stranger.**

More cheers.

**Dudley squeaked and ran to hide behind his mother, **

"How is that going to work?" a Ravenclaw asked.**  
**

**who was crouching, terrified, behind Uncle Vernon.**

"Ah."

"**An' here's Harry an' Alexis!" said the giant.**

**The twins looked up into the fierce, wild, shadowy face and saw that the beetle eyes were crinkled in a smile.**

"**Las' time I saw you two, you was only a baby," said the giant. "Yeh got yer dad's hair, but yeh've got yer mum's eyes."**

"The first of many times we've been told." the twins smiled up at Hagrid.

**Uncle Vernon made a funny rasping noise.**

"YES, HE'S CHOKING!" yelled Fred and George.

"Weasley and Weasley, sit down!" said McGonagall.

"**I demand that you leave at once, sir!" he said. "You are breaking and entering!"**

"I'd like to see someone actually demand something of Hagrid."

"**Ah, shut up, Dursley, yeh great prune," said the giant; he reached over the back of the sofa, jerked the gun out of Uncle Vernon's hands, bent it into a knot as easily as if it had been made of rubber, and threw it into a corner of the room.**

Cheers filled the Hall again, and Hagrid beamed. Meanwhile, Umbridge snarled under her breath.

**Uncle Vernon made another funny noise, like a mouse being trodden on.**

Snickers filled the Hall.

"**Anyway — Harry, Alex" said the giant, turning his back on the Dursleys, "a very happy birthday to yeh. Got summat fer yeh here — I mighta sat on it at some point, but it'll taste all right."**

"Did you really eat it?" asked Ron.

Harry shrugged. "It was surprisingly edible."

**From an inside pocket of his black overcoat he pulled a slightly squashed box. Alex opened it with trembling fingers. Inside was a large, sticky chocolate cake with **_**Happy Birthday Potters **_**written on it in green icing.**

"Thanks Hagrid!" chorused the twins.

**Harry and Alex shared a look, and looked up at the giant. Harry meant to say thank you, but the words got lost on the way to his mouth, and what he said instead was, "Who are you?"**

"Manners, Mr. Potter." McGonagall reprimanded half-heartily.

**The giant chuckled.**

"**True, I haven't introduced meself. Rubeus Hagrid, Keeper of Keys and Grounds at Hogwarts."**

**He held out an enormous hand and shook Harry's whole arm. Alex snickered beside him.**

"**What about that tea then, eh?" he said, rubbing his hands together. "I'd not say no ter summat stronger if yeh've got it, mind."**

"Hagrid!" Professor Sprout admonished.

**His eyes fell on the empty grate with the shriveled chip bags in it and he snorted. He bent down over the fireplace; they couldn't see what he was doing but when he drew back a second later, there was a roaring fire there. ****It filled the whole damp hut with flickering light and Harry felt the warmth wash over him as though he'd sunk into a hot bath.**

**The giant sat back down on the sofa, which sagged under his weight, and began taking all sorts of things out of the pockets of his coat: a copper kettle, a squashy package of sausages, a poker, a teapot, several chipped mugs, and a bottle of some amber liquid that he took a swig from before starting to make tea.**

"What exactly does he keep in all his pockets?" some first-year asked incredulously.

**Soon the hut was full of the sound and smell of sizzling sausage.**

Ron was almost drooling and Ginny smacked him upside the head.

**Nobody said a thing while the giant was working, but as he slid the first six fat, juicy, slightly burnt sausages from the poker, Dudley fidgeted a little. Uncle Vernon said sharply, "Don't touch anything he gives you, Dudley."**

**The giant chuckled darkly.**

"**Yer great puddin' of a son don' need fattenin' anymore, Dursley, don' worry."**

The twins stood up and cheered loudly, and Snape began yelling at them to sit down.

**He passed the sausages to the twins, who were so hungry they had never tasted anything so wonderful, but they still couldn't take their eyes off the giant. Finally, as nobody seemed about to explain anything, he said, "I'm sorry, but I still don't really know who you are."**

McGonagall nodded approvingly.

**The giant took a gulp of tea and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand.**

'He's got Ron's table manners,' Ginny whispered to Harry and Hermione, who promptly snorted.

Ron didn't hear them, since he was too busy looking scandalised over the lack of food in his sights.

"**Call me Hagrid," he said, "everyone does. An' like I told yeh, I'm Keeper of Keys at Hogwarts — yeh'll know all about Hogwarts, o' course.**

"**Er — no," said Alex.**

"Hagrid's not going to like that." Seamus grinned.

**Hagrid looked shocked.**

"Told you."

"**Sorry," Alex said quickly.**

"_**Sorry**_**?" barked Hagrid, turning to stare at the Dursleys, who shrank back into the shadows. "It's them as should be sorry! I knew yeh weren't gettin' yer letters but I never thought yeh wouldn't even know abou' Hogwarts, fer cryin' out loud! Did yeh never wonder where yer parents learned it all?"**

"**All what?" asked the twins.**

"**ALL WHAT?" Hagrid thundered. "Now wait jus' one second!"**

"Here it comes." Padma Patil grinned.

**He had leapt to his feet. In his anger he seemed to fill the whole hut. The Dursleys were cowering against the wall.**

"**Do you mean ter tell me," he growled at the Dursleys, "that this boy an' girl — these two! — know nothin' abou' — about ANYTHING?"**

"Way to make us sound stupid, Hagrid." the twins chorused solemnly, though they were grinning.

**Harry thought this was going a bit far. They had been to school, after all, and their marks weren't bad.**

"What happened then?" Hermione asked.

The twins shrugged.

**Alex just looked downright insulted. **

**"We know **_**some **_**things," she said. "We can, you know, do math and stuff."**

**But Hagrid simply waved his hand and said, "About **_**our **_**world, I mean. **_**Your **_**world. **_**My **_**world. **_**Yer parents' world**_**."**

"**What world?"**

**Hagrid looked as if he was about to explode.**

Many people in the Hall were at the edge of their seats in anticipation.

"**DURSLEY!" he boomed.**

**Uncle Vernon, who had gone very pale, whispered something that sounded like "Mimblewimble."**

People laughed.

**Hagrid stared wildly at the twins.**

"**But yeh must know about yer mum and dad," he said. "I mean, they're **_**famous**_**. You're **_**famous**_**."**

"**What? Our — our mum and dad weren't famous, were they?"**

A few Slytherins stared at the twins amusedly.

"Oi! Quit looking at us like that!" Alex snapped. "We were in shock!"

A few people laughed at her outburst, and Snape was thoroughly reminded of Lily's temper.

"**Yeh don' know… yeh don' know…" Hagrid ran his fingers through his hair, fixing Harry and Alex with a bewildered stare.**

"**Yeh don' know what yeh **_**are**_**?" he said finally.**

"Yeah, didn't you guys know?" Fred and George mocked.

**Uncle Vernon suddenly found his voice.**

"**Stop!" he commanded. "Stop right there, sir! I forbid you to tell the children anything!"**

"Wow."

"He's going to get it now."

"He must have a death wish." Were a few thing muttered around the Hall.

**A braver man than Vernon Dursley would have quailed under the furious look Hagrid now gave him; when Hagrid spoke, his every syllable trembled with rage.**

"**You never told 'em? Never told 'em what was in the letter Dumbledore left fer 'em? I was there! I saw Dumbledore leave it, Dursley! An' you've kept it from 'em all these years?"**

"**Kept **_**what **_**from us?" said Harry eagerly.**

"Ooh, Hagrid's not going to be happy." Angelina grinned.

**"Yeah, it's always 'don't ask questions' for us." Alex added innocently. Though Harry could see the devious glint in her eyes, and had to suppress a grin. 'Sneaky, very sneaky.' he thought.**

**Aunt Petunia glared at her.**

The Alex in the Hall was doing the same thing.

"What?"

Harry grinned. "You were mocking them."

"Shut it Harry." she huffed.

"That is a very Slytherin move, Ms. Potter." drawled Professor Snape.

"What is?"

"That is."

"That what?" Alex grinned, and people began laughing.

Professor Snape sighed. "Nevermind."

**"STOP! I FORBID YOU!" yelled Uncle Vernon in panic.**

**Aunt Petunia gave a gasp of horror.**

"Drama queen." Hermione muttered.

"**Ah, go boil yer heads, both of yeh,**

More laughs.

" **said Hagrid. "Harry — yer a wizard. An' Alex - yer a witch."**

'"Wow. Way to be blunt."

**There was silence inside the hut. Only the sea and the whistling wind could be heard.**

"**I'm a **_**what**_**?" gasped Harry.**

"Nice reaction. You took it better than I did." said Hermione.

**"That's not very nice." huffed Alex.**

The muggle-borns and a few half-bloods in the room laughed.

"**A wizard an' witch, o' course," said Hagrid, sitting back down on the sofa, which groaned and sank even lower, "an' a thumpin' good 'un, I'd say, once yeh've been trained up a bit. With a mum an' dad like yours, what else would yeh be? An' I reckon it's abou' time yeh read yer letter."**

"YES!" Most of the Hall chorused.

**Harry stretched out his hand at last to take the yellowish envelope, addressed in emerald green to **_**Mr. H. Potter, The Floor, Hut-on-the-Rock, The Sea. **_**He pulled out the letter and read:**

_**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**_

_**Headmaster: ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**_

_**(Order of Merlin, First Class, Grand Sorc., Chf. Warlock, Supreme Mugwump, International Confed. of Wizards)**_

_**Dear Mr. Potter,**_

_**We are pleased to inform you that you have been accepted at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment.**_

_**Term begins on September 1. We await your owl by no later than July 31.**_

_**Yours sincerely,**_

_**Minerva McGonagall,**_

_**Deputy Headmistress**_

**Alex's read the same thing, except her's read 'Ms. Potter.' She grinned, everything made sense.**

"Yeah to you."

"Shut it, Harry."

**Questions exploded inside Harry's head like fireworks and he couldn't decide which to ask first. After a few minutes he stammered, "What does it mean, they await my owl?"**

"That was your first question?" Pansy sneered.

"Raised by magic hating muggles, Parkinson." Alex spat. "What do you expect?"

"I expected your brother had more sense, Potter."

Alex abruptly stood from her seat, as did Pansy, both reaching for their wands.

"You can insult me all you want, Parkinson. But _lay off_ my brother, _you hear me_?" Alex growled.

The hall was silent, their gazes switching between the two girls.

"Ms. Potter, Ms. Parkinson, sit down!" McGonagall demanded weakly, but neither would budge, nor put their wands down.

"Alex..." Fred and Harry tried to get Alex to sit, but she wouldn't move.

"Alex, it's okay." said Harry.

"She's not worth it, love. Don't let her get to you." Fred added.

Alex was about to comply, when Pansy's shrill, sneering voice spoke again.

"Yeah, Potter. Listen to your blood traitor boyfriend."

Alex was ready to pounce that the Slytherin table, when Fred grabbed her by the waist. Alex struggled, and Pansy smirked.

"Twenty points from Slytherin, Ms. Parkinson." Everyone froze as Snape's voice echoed in the Hall.

Most looked up at the potions Master in shock, even a few of the teachers. Snape _never_ took points from Slytherin.

"Sit down Ms. Potter, unless you want points taken from your house as well." said Snape.

Fred sat down, pulling Alex on his lap as she was still rather shocked to move.

Pansy was pulled down roughly in her seat by Daphne Greengrass.

Flitwick cleared his throat and continued reading.

"**Gallopin' Gorgons****, that reminds me," said Hagrid, clapping a hand to his forehead with enough force to knock over a cart horse, and from yet another pocket inside his overcoat he pulled an owl — a real, live, rather ruffled-looking owl — a long quill, and a roll of parchment. With his tongue between his teeth he scribbled a note that Harry and Alex could read upside down:**

_**Dear Professor Dumbledore,**_

_**Given Harry and Alex their letters.**_

_**Taking them to buy their things tomorrow.**_

_**Weather's horrible. Hope you're well.**_

_**Hagrid**_

**Hagrid rolled up the note, gave it to the owl, which clamped it in its beak, went to the door, and threw the owl out into the storm.**

"Poor owl." said Katie.

**Then he came back and sat down as though this was as normal as talking on the telephone.**

**Harry realized his mouth was open and closed it quickly. Alex was still watching with wide eyes.**

"**Where was I?" said Hagrid, but at that moment, Uncle Vernon, still ashen-faced but looking very angry, moved into the firelight.**

"**They're not going," he said.**

**Hagrid grunted.**

"**I'd like ter see a great Muggle like you stop 'em," he said.**

"**A what?" said Harry, interested.**

"**A Muggle," said Hagrid, "it's what we call nonmagic folk like them. An' it's your bad luck you grew up in a family o' the biggest Muggles I ever laid eyes on."**

"Literally." said Fred.

**'Literally.' Alex mentally added.**

Many Gryffindors grinned at the flushing teens.

**We swore when we took them in we'd put a stop to that rubbish," said Uncle Vernon, "swore we'd stamp it out of them! Wizard and witch indeed!"**

"Did they ever hurt you two?" Hermione asked, dangerously calm.

"No!" Harry answered quickly.

"**You **_**knew**_**?" said Harry. "You **_**knew **_**I'm a — a wizard? And that Alex was a witch?"**

"**Knew!" shrieked Aunt Petunia suddenly. "**_**Knew**_**! Of course we knew! How could you two not be, my dratted sister being what she was?**

Snape snarled under his breath.

"Our mother is not dratted!" Snarled the twins. They've been doing that a lot more since they started reading the book.

**Oh, she got a letter just like that and disappeared off to that — that **_**school **_**— and came home every vacation with her pockets full of frog spawn, turning teacups into rats. I was the only one who saw her for what she was — a freak!**

"Lily was NOT a freak!" McGonagall sniffed angrily.

**But for my mother and father, oh no, it was Lily this and Lily that, they were proud of having a witch in the family!"**

**She stopped to draw a deep breath and then went ranting on. It seemed she had been wanting to say all this for years.**

"**Then she met that Potter at school and they left and got married and had you, and of course I knew you'd be just the same, just as strange, just as — as —**_**abnormal **_**— and then, if you please, she went and got herself blown up and we got landed with you!"**

"That's how you found out?" Ginny gasped..

Harry nodded, gritting his teeth.

**Harry had gone very white, and Alex's expression darkened.**

In the Hall, Harry and Alex were similar.

**Alex was beyond furious, "Blown up? You told us they died in a car crash!"**

"**CAR CRASH!" roared Hagrid, jumping up so angrily that the Dursleys scuttled back to their corner.**

"**How could a car crash kill Lily an' James Potter? It's an outrage! A scandal! Harry an' Alexis Potter not knowin' their own story when every kid in our world knows their names!"**

"**But why? What happened?" Harry asked urgently.**

**The anger faded from Hagrid's face. He looked suddenly anxious.**

"**I never expected this," he said, in a low, worried voice. "I had no idea, when Dumbledore told me there might be trouble gettin' hold of yeh, how much yeh didn't know.**

Snape and McGonagall threw a glare at Dumbledore, who did his best to ignore them.

**Ah, Harry, I don' know if I'm the right person ter tell yeh — but someone's gotta — yeh can't go off ter Hogwarts not knowin'."**

**He threw a dirty look at the Dursleys.**

"Wish you did more than that." hissed Ginny.

Alex and Harry smiled grimly. "Oh, he did."

"**Well, it's best yeh know as much as I can tell yeh — mind, I can't tell yeh everythin', it's a great myst'ry, parts of it…"**

**He sat down, stared into the fire for a few seconds, and then said, "It begins, I suppose, with — with a person called — but it's incredible yeh don't know his name, everyone in our world knows —"**

"**Who?"**

"**Well — I don' like sayin' the name if I can help it. No one does."**

"**Why not?"**

"**Gulpin' gargoyles, Harry, people are still scared. Blimey, this is difficult. See, there was this wizard who went… bad. As bad as you could go. Worse. Worse than worse. His name was…"**

**Hagrid gulped, but no words came out.**

"Bet you can't get him to say it." said Ron.

"**Could you write it down?" Harry suggested.**

"**Nah — can't spell it.**

**All right —**_**Voldemort**_**. "**

As people around the Hall flinched, including Umbridge.

**Hagrid shuddered. "Don' make me say it again. Anyway, this — this wizard, about twenty years ago now, started lookin' fer followers. Got 'em, too — some were afraid, some just wanted a bit o' his power,**'**cause he was gettin' himself power, all right. Dark days, Harry. Didn't know who ter trust, didn't dare get friendly with strange wizards or witches… terrible things happened. He was takin' over. 'Course, some stood up to him — an' he killed 'em. Horribly. One o' the only safe places left was Hogwarts. Reckon Dumbledore's the only one You-Know-Who was afraid of. Didn't dare try takin' the school, not jus' then, anyway.**

The adults, excluding Umbridge, shuddered.

"**Now, yer mum an' dad were as good a witch an' wizard as I ever knew. Head boy an' girl at Hogwarts in their day! Suppose the myst'ry is why You-Know-Who never tried to get 'em on his side before… probably knew they were too close ter Dumbledore ter want anythin' ter do with the Dark Side.**

"**Maybe he thought he could persuade 'em… maybe he just wanted 'em outta the way.**

Snape's look darkened. He knew the reason Voldemort was at Godric's Hollow.

**All anyone knows is, he turned up in the village where you was all living, on Halloween ten years ago. You two was just a year old. He came ter yer house an' — an' —"**

All the decent people bowed their heads in respect.

**Hagrid suddenly pulled out a very dirty, spotted handkerchief and blew his nose with a sound like a foghorn.**

"**Sorry," he said. "But it's that sad — knew yer mum an' dad, an' nicer people yeh couldn't find — anywa…**

"**You-Know-Who killed 'em. An' then — an' this is the real myst'ry of the thing — he tried to kill you, too. Wanted ter make a clean job of it, I suppose, or maybe he just liked killin' by then.**

**But he couldn't do it. Never wondered how you got that mark on yer forehead? That was no ordinary cut. That's what yeh get when a powerful, evil curse touches yeh — took care of yer mum an' dad an' yer house, even — but it didn't work on you, an' that's why yeh two famous. No one ever lived after he decided ter kill 'em, no one except you two,**

_And the Dark Lord shall mark them as his equal..._

**an' he'd killed some o' the best witches an' wizards of the age — the McKinnons, the Bones,**

Susan Bones let out sob.

**the Prewetts**

The Weasleys looked solemn. Harry held a teary Ginny in his arms, and Alex rubbed soothing circles on Fred's back..

**an' you two was only a baby, an' you lived."**

**Something very painful was going on in Harry's mind. As Hagrid's story came to a close, he saw again the blinding flash of green light, more clearly than he had ever remembered it before — and he remembered something else, for the first time in his life: a high, cold, cruel laugh. Something else flashed in Alex's mind. A woman screaming, and dropping to the floor, though she couldn't see her face.**

McGonagall blanched. "You- you remember that?**  
**

Both teens nodded grimly, and many looked at them in horror.

"**Took yeh from the ruined house myself, on Dumbledore's orders. Brought yeh ter this lot… ."**

"**Load of old tosh," said Uncle Vernon. Harry jumped; he had almost forgotten that the Dursleys were there. Alex, teary, glared at the Dursleys through her watery eyes. Uncle Vernon certainly seemed to have got back his courage. He was glaring at Hagrid and his fists were clenched.**

"**Now, you listen here, " he snarled, "I accept there's something strange about you two, probably nothing a good beating wouldn't have cured**

"They better not have." growled Fred and George. Harry rubbed his temples and Alex facepalmed.

**and as for all this about your parents, well, they were weirdoes, no denying it, and the world's better off without them in my opinion**

"Well no one asked your opinion!" Hermione snarled.

**asked for all they got, getting mixed up with these wizarding types — just what I expected, always knew they'd come to a sticky end —"**

"How _dare_ he!" spat Professor Sinistra.

**But at that moment, Hagrid leapt from the sofa and drew a battered pink umbrella from inside his coat. Pointing this at Uncle Vernon like a sword, he said, "I'm warning you, Dursley — I'm warning you — one more word…"**

**In danger of being speared on the end of an umbrella by a bearded giant, Uncle Vernon's courage failed again; he flattened himself against the wall and fell silent.**

"Good." said Professor Vector.

"**That's better," said Hagrid, breathing heavily and sitting back down on the sofa, which this time sagged right down to the floor.**

**Harry and Alex, meanwhile, still had questions to ask, hundreds of them.**

"**But what happened to Vol-, sorry — I mean, You-Know-Who?" asked Harry.**

Silence.

"You didn't say his name!" cried Ron in surprise.

"How long did that last exactly?" asked Harry and Alex shrugged in response.

"**Good question, Harry. Disappeared. Vanished. Same night he tried ter kill you. Makes yeh even more famous. That's the biggest myst'ry, see… he was gettin' more an' more powerful — why'd he go?**

"Because he's dead." said Umbridge approvingly.

Alex scoffed. "Oh please."

"**Some say he died. Codswallop, in my opinion. Dunno if he had enough human left in him to die.**

"He doesn't" said Harry scathingly with a pointed look at Umbridge.

**Some say he's still out there, bidin' his time,**** like, but I don' believe it. People who was on his side came back ter ours.**

Many Gryffindors snorted.

**Some of 'em came outta kinda trances. Don' reckon they could've done if he was comin' back.**

"**Most of us reckon he's still out there somewhere but lost his powers.**

"Is Hargid a seer?" Alex mocked whispered to Harry, who smiled grimly, and Umbridge glared at her.

"He is NOT back!" she snapped.

"Says you!" retorted the twins.

**Too weak to carry on. 'Cause somethin' about you finished him, Harry. There was somethin' goin' on that night he hadn't counted on — **_**I **_**dunno what it was, no one does — but somethin' about you stumped him, all right."**

**Hagrid looked at Harry and Alex with warmth and respect blazing in his eyes, but the twins, instead of feeling pleased and proud, felt quite sure there had been a horrible mistake.**

Snape was taken aback.

**A wizard and witch? Them? How could they possibly be? They'd spent their lives being clouted by Dudley, and bullied by Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon; if they was really magical, why hadn't they been turned into warty toads every time they'd tried to lock them in their cupboard? If they'd once defeated the greatest sorcerer in the world, how come Dudley had always been able to kick them around like a football?**

"It doesn't work that way." said Alicia.

"We know that now."

"**Hagrid," Alex said quietly, "I think you must have made a mistake. I don't think I can be a witch."**

**To their surprise, Hagrid chuckled.**

"**Not a witch, eh? Never made things happen when you was scared or angry?"**

**Harry looked into the fire. Now he came to think about it… every odd thing that had ever made his aunt and uncle furious with him had happened when he, Harry, had been upset or angry… Alex thought of the time she was chased by Dudley's gang, she had somehow found herself out of their reach… Harry, dreading going to school with that ridiculous haircut, he'd managed to make it grow back… and the very last time Dudley had hit him, hadn't he and Alex got their revenge, without even realizing they were doing it? Hadn't they set a boa constrictor on him?**

"Yes, and it was bloody brilliant." said Lee.

**Harry and Alex looked back at Hagrid, smiling, and saw that Hagrid was positively beaming at them.**

"**See?" said Hagrid. "Harry an' Alexis Potter, not a wizard or witch — you wait, you'll be right famous at Hogwarts."**

"Unfortunately." spat the twins in disgust.

**But Uncle Vernon wasn't going to give in without a fight.**

"Oh, bloody hell." muttered Fred as he nuzzled Alex's neck, wrapping his arms tighter around her. The Potter girl chuckled, and leaned into Fred.

"**Haven't I told you they're not going?" he hissed. "They're going to Stonewall High and they'll be grateful for it. I've read those letters and they need all sorts of rubbish — spell books and wands and —"**

"**If they want ter go, a great Muggle like you won't stop 'em," growled Hagrid. "Stop Lily an' James Potter's son an' daughter from goin' ter Hogwarts! Yer mad. Their names' been down ever since they were born. They're off ter the finest school of witchcraft and wizardry in the world. Seven years there and they won't know themselves. They'll be with youngsters of their own sort, fer a change, an' they'll be under the greatest headmaster Hogwarts ever had Albus Dumbled—"**

"**I AM NOT PAYING FOR SOME CRACKPOT OLD FOOL TO TEACH HIM MAGIC TRICKS!" yelled Uncle Vernon.**

"Oooh..." chorused the Hall.

**But he had finally gone too far. Hagrid seized his umbrella and whirled it over his head, "NEVER —" he thundered, "— INSULT — ALBUS — DUMBLEDORE — IN — FRONT — OF — ME!"**

"Now he's done it." smirked Professor Sinistra.

**He brought the umbrella swishing down through the air to point at Dudley — there was a flash of violet light, a sound like a firecracker, a sharp squeal, and the next second, Dudley was dancing on the spot with his hands clasped over his fat bottom, howling in pain.**

"What did you do?" said the Weasley twins and Lee excitedly.

**When he turned his back on them, Harry and Alex saw a cu****rly pig's tail poking through a hole in his trousers.**

The Hall exploded into an uproar of laughter, and Hagrid beamed. Even a few teachers were applauding him.

**Uncle Vernon roared. Pulling Aunt Petunia and Dudley into the other room, he cast one last terrified look at Hagrid and slammed the door behind them.**

**Hagrid looked down at his umbrella and stroked his beard.**

"**Shouldn'ta lost me temper," he said ruefully, "but it didn't work anyway. Meant ter turn him into a pig, but I suppose he was so much like a pig anyway there wasn't much left ter do."**

The Weasley twins and Lee burst into more fits of laughter, turning as red as the famous Weasley hair. Alex, who was still seated on a hysterical Fred's lap, chuckled.

**He cast a sideways look at a grinning Harry and a laughing Alex under his bushy eyebrows.**

"**Be grateful if yeh didn't mention that ter anyone at Hogwarts," he said. "I'm — er — not supposed ter do magic, strictly speakin'. I was allowed ter do a bit ter follow yeh an' get yer letters to yeh an' stuff — one o' the reasons I was so keen ter take on the job."**

"**Why aren't you supposed to do magic?" asked Harry.**

"**Oh, well — I was at Hogwarts meself but I — er — got expelled, ter tell yeh the truth. In me third year. They snapped me wand in half an' everything. But Dumbledore let me stay on as gamekeeper. Great man, Dumbledore."**

"**Why were you expelled?" asked Alex.**

"He'll never tell you that." said George knowingly.

"Yeah, we asked him." added Fred.

Harry, Alex, Ron and Hermione shared a smug look, which of course, Lee and the Weasley twins noticed.

"He told you?" gasped Lee.

"That's not fair!" whined Fred and George.

"**It's gettin' late and we've got lots ter do tomorrow," said Hagrid loudly. "Gotta get up ter town, get all yer books an' that."**

**He took off his thick black coat and threw it to the twwins.**

"**You can kip under that," he said. "Don' mind if it wriggles a bit, I think I still got a couple o' ****dormice in one o' the pockets."**

"Ew.." said Lavender. "What else does he keep in his pockets?"

"Who's next?" called Flitwick.

"I'll read." said Professor Sprout.

* * *

**Hope you guys liked this chapter and please review!**

**~Cassandra**


	5. Diagon Alley

**Finally, the fourth chapter! I hope you guys like this one!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

"**Diagon Alley" **read Professor Sprout.

**Harry woke early the next morning. Although he could tell it was daylight, he kept his eyes shut tight.**

_**It was a dream, **_**he told himself firmly. **_**I dreamed a giant called Hagrid came to tell me I was going to a school for wizards. When I open my eyes I'll be at home in my cupboard.**_

"Ever the pessimist, Harry?" Hermione shook her head.

**There was suddenly a loud tapping noise and he felt Alex stir beside him.**

_**And there's Aunt Petunia knocking on the door**_**, Harry thought, his heart sinking.**

"That's sad. The best thing that ever happened to you two, and you think it was all a dream." said Ron.

**But he still didn't open his eyes. It had been such a good dream.**

**Tap. Tap. Tap.**

**"Harry..." Alex muttered, shaking him awake.**

"**All right," Harry mumbled, "I'm getting up."**

**He sat up and Hagrid's heavy coat fell off him and Alex. The hut was full of sunlight, the storm was over, Hagrid himself was asleep on the collapsed sofa, and there was an owl rapping its claw on the window, a newspaper held in its beak.**

**Harry scrambled to his feet, so happy he felt as though a large balloon was swelling inside him.**

"Nice metaphor." Angelina snickered.

**He went straight to the window and jerked it open. The owl swooped in and dropped the newspaper on top of Hagrid, who didn't wake up. The owl then fluttered onto the floor and began to attack Hagrid's coat.**

"**Don't do that."**

**Harry tried to wave the owl out of the way, but it snapped its beak fiercely at him and carried on savaging the coat.**

"**Hagrid!" said Harry loudly. "There's an owl —"**

"**Pay him," Hagrid grunted into the sofa.**

"**What?"**

"**He wants payin' fer deliverin' the paper. Look in the pockets."**

**Hagrid's coat seemed to be made of nothing **_**but **_**pockets — bunches of keys, slug pellets, balls of string, peppermint humbugs, teabags…**

**finally, Harry pulled out a handful of strange-looking coins.**

"**Give him five Knuts," said Hagrid sleepily.**

"How is he going to know that?"

"**Knuts?"**

"**The little bronze ones."**

**Harry counted out five little bronze coins, and the owl held out his leg so Harry could put the money into a small leather pouch tied to it. Then he flew off through the open window.**

**Hagrid yawned loudly, sat up, and stretched.**

"**Best be off, you two, lots ter do today, gotta get up ter London an' buy all yer stuff fer school."**

**Harry was turning over the wizard coins and looking at them. He had just thought of something that made him feel as though the happy balloon inside him had got a puncture. Alex glanced at him and frowned, she knew what he was thinking.**

"When do you NOT know what he's thinking?" smirked Ron.

Alex shrugged. "It's a twin thing, I don't question it."

"**Um — Hagrid?" said Alex.**

"**Mm?" said Hagrid, who was pulling on his huge boots.**

"**We haven't got any money — and you heard Uncle Vernon last night… he won't pay for me to go and learn magic."**

"Git."

"Whale."

"Pig."

"Basta-"

"Don't you dare finish that sentence, Weasley!"

"**Don't worry about that," said Hagrid, standing up and scratching his head. "D'yeh think yer parents didn't leave yeh anything?"**

"**But if their house was destroyed —" said Harry.**

"**They didn' keep their gold in the house, boy! Nah, first stop fer us is Gringotts. Wizards' bank. Have a sausage, they're not bad cold — an' I wouldn' say no teh a bit o' yer birthday cake, neither."**

"**Wizards have **_**banks**_**?"**

"Where do you think we keep our gold, Potter?" sneered Zacharias Smith.

Alex glared at him. "Watch you're mouth, Smith."

"Or what?"

If looks could kill, Zacharias would have died on the spot. Alex was about to get up, but Fred kept a hold on her waist.

"Let me go, Fred!" growled Alex. "I'm going teach that tosspot not to mess with family."

"Alex..." Harry said and gripped her wrist. "Don't. He's not worth it. You can't go around hexing people just because they say things about me."

Alex abruptly turned to her brother. "But Harry-"

"No." Harry said sternly. "Leave it."

Alex sighed, but nodded.

"**Just the one. Gringotts. Run by goblins."**

**Harry dropped the bit of sausage he was holding.**

"_**Goblins**_**?"**

"**Yeah — so yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it, I'll tell yeh that. Never mess with goblins, Harry. Gringotts is the safest place in the world fer anything yeh want ter ke****ep safe — 'cept maybe Hogwarts. As a matter o' fact, I gotta visit Gringotts anyway. Fer Dumbledore. Hogwarts business." Hagrid drew himself up proudly.**

"No! You just spiked their curiosity!" cried Ron.

"**He usually gets me ter do important stuff fer him. Fetchin' you **— **gettin' things from Gringotts**** — knows he can trust me, see."**

"**Got everythin'? Come on, then."**

**Harry and Alex followed Hagrid out onto the rock. The sky was quite clear now and the sea gleamed in the sunlight. The boat Uncle Vernon had hired was still there, with a lot of water in the bottom after the storm.**

"**How did you get here?" Harry asked, looking around for another boat.**

"**Flew," said Hagrid.**

"_Flew?"_ said Ginny incredulously.

"_**Flew**_**?"**

"Okay, now this is just getting weird."

"You know you like it, Gin."

"Shut up, George!"

"**Yeah — but we'll go back in this. Not s'pposed ter use magic now I've got yeh."**

**They settled down in the boat, Harry and Alex still staring at Hagrid, trying to imagine him flying.**

"Wow." Lee shook his head. "Can't really imagine him flying, to be honest."

"**Seems a shame ter row, though," said Hagrid, giving Harry another of his sideways looks. "If I was ter — er — speed things up a bit, would yeh mind not mentionin' it at Hogwarts?"**

A few teachers glanced at Hagrid amusedly.

"**Of course not," said Alex, eager to see more magic. Hagrid pulled out the pink umbrella again, tapped it twice on the side of the boat, and they sped off toward land.**

"**Why would you be mad to try and rob Gringotts?" Harry asked.**

"**Spells — enchantments," said Hagrid, unfolding his newspaper as he spoke. "They say there's dragons guardin' the high security vaults. And then yeh gotta find yer way — Gringotts is hundreds of miles under London, see. Deep under the Underground. Yeh'd die of hunger tryin' ter get out, even if yeh did manage ter get yer hands on summat."**

**Harry and Alex sat and thought about this while Hagrid read his newspaper, the **_**Daily Prophet**_**. The twins had learned from Uncle Vernon that people liked to be left alone while they did this, but it was very difficult, they'd never had so many questions in their lives.**

"**Ministry o' Magic messin' things up as usual," Hagrid muttered, turning the page.**

"We do not mess things up!" cried Fudge. This was the first time he had spoken since they started reading.

Percy and Umbridge nodded in agreement.

"Really?" said Alicia incredulously. "Hard to tell."

This earned a few snickeres around the Hall, specifically from the DA members.

"**There's a Ministry of Magic?" Alex asked, before she could stop herself.**

"Well, if you can even call them that, then sure." George shrugged, and Percy scowled at him.

"'**Course," said Hagrid. "They wanted Dumbledore fer Minister, o' course, but he'd never leave Hogwarts, ****so old Cornelius Fudge got the job. Bungler if ever there was one.**

The DA members burst into full out laughter, so did many others in the Hall as Fudge turned red.

**So he pelts Dumbledore with owls every morning, askin' fer advice."**

"I do _not!"_

More snickers.

"**But what does a Ministry of Magic **_**do**_**?"**

"Nothing!" Ginny growled.

"Ginevra Weasley!" barked Percy.

"Shut up, Weatherby!"

"**Well, their main job is to keep it from the Muggles that there's still witches an' wizards up an' down the country."**

"**Why?"**

"_**Why? **_**Blimey, everyone'd be wantin' magic solutions to their problems. Nah, we're best left alone."**

**At this moment the boat bumped gently into the harbor wall. Hagrid folded up his newspaper, and they clambered up the stone steps onto the street.**

**Passersby stared a lot at Hagrid as they walked through the little town to the station. Harry nor Alex could blame them. Not only was Hagrid twice as tall as anyone else, he kept pointing at perfectly ordinary things like parking meters and saying loudly, "See that? Things these Muggles dream up, eh?"**

"Hagrid!" the teachers groaned.

"**Hagrid," said Alex, panting a bit as she and Harry ran to keep up, "did you say there are **_**dragons **_**at Gringotts?"**

"**Well, so they say," said Hagrid. "Crikey, I'd like a dragon."**

"**You'd **_**like **_**one?"**

"**Wanted one ever since I was a kid — here we go."**

Ron, Hermione, Alex and Harry all exchanged a look. They were going to be in so much trouble when the teachers found out about the dragon.

**They had reached the station. There was a train to London in five minutes' time. Hagrid, who didn't understand "Muggle money," as he called it, gave the bills to Harry and Alex so they could buy their tickets.**

**People stared more than ever on the train. Hagrid took up two seats and sat knitting what looked like a canary-yellow circus tent.**

Many people snorted.

"**Still got yer letters?" he asked as he counted stitches.**

**Harry and Alex took the parchment envelope out of their pockets.**

"**Good," said Hagrid. "There's a list there of everything yeh need."**

**Harry unfolded a second piece of paper he hadn't noticed the night before, and read:**

_**HOGWARTS SCHOOL of WITCHCRAFT and WIZARDRY**_

_**UNIFORM**_

_**First-year students will require:**_

_**1. Three sets of plain work robes (black)**_

_**2. One plain pointed hat (black) for day wear**_

"Why do we even need that hat?"

_**3. One pair of protective gloves (dragon hide or similar)**_

_**4. One winter cloak (black, silver fastenings)**_

_**Please note that all pupils' clothes should carry name tags**_

_**COURSE BOOKS**_

_**All students should have a copy of each of the following:**_

_**The Standard Book of Spells (Grade 1)by Miranda Goshawk**_

_**A History of Magic by Bathilda Bagshot**_

_**Magical Theory by Adalbert Waffling**_

_**A Beginners' Guide to Transfiguration by Emeric Switch**_

_**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi by Phyllida Spore**_

_**Magical Drafts and Potions by Arsenius Jigger**_

_**Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them by Newt Scamander**_

_**The Dark Forces: A Guide to Self-Protection by Quentin Trimble**_

_**OTHER EQUIPMENT**_

_**1 wand**_

_**1 cauldron (pewter, standard size 2)**_

_**1 set of glass or crystal phials**_

_**1 telescope set**_

_**1 brass scales**_

_**Students may also bring an owl OR a cat OR a toad**_

_**PARENTS ARE REMINDED THAT FIRST YEARS ARE NOT ALLOWED THEIR OWN BROOMSTICKS**_

"Unless your Harry or Alexis Potter!" chorused Fred and George, which earned Fred an elbow in the ribs.

"You know better than to call me 'Alexis', Frederick Weasley."

**Alex's said the same thing.**

**"Can we buy all this in London?" Harry wondered aloud.**

"**If yeh know where to go," said Hagrid.**

**The twins had never been to London before. Although Hagrid seemed to know where he was going, he was obviously not used to getting there in an ordinary way. He got stuck in the ticket barrier on the Underground,**

Some of the students, particularly Muggleborns, snickered.

**and complained loudly that the seats were too small and the trains too slow.**

"**I don't know how the Muggles manage without magic," he said as they climbed a broken-down escalator that led up to a bustling road lined with shops.**

**Hagrid was so huge that he parted the crowd easily; all the twins had to do was keep close behind him. They passed book shops and music stores, hamburger restaurants and cinemas, but nowhere that looked as if it could sell you a magic wand. This was just an ordinary street full of ordinary people. Could there really be piles of wizard gold buried miles beneath them? Were there really shops that sold spell books and broomsticks? Might this not all be some huge joke that the Dursleys had cooked up?**

"No, they don't approve of imagination, remember?" said Luna.

**If Harry or Alex hadn't known that the Dursleys had no sense of humor, they might have thought so;**

"See?"

**yet somehow, even though everything Hagrid had told them so far was unbelievable, the twins couldn't help trusting him.**

Umbridge sneered in disdain as there were nods of agreement around the Hall.

"**This is it," said Hagrid, coming to a halt, "the Leaky Cauldron. It's a famous place."**

**It was a tiny, grubby-looking pub. If Hagrid hadn't pointed it out, Harry wouldn't have noticed it was there. The people hurrying by didn't glance at it. Their eyes slid from the big book shop on one side to the record shop on the other as if they couldn't see the Leaky Cauldron at all. In fact, Harry had the most peculiar feeling that only he and Hagrid could see it.**

"Of course the filthy Muggles can't see it, Potter," Malfoy drawled.

"We know that now, Malfoy."

**Before either could mention this, Hagrid had steered them inside.**

**For a famous place, it was very dark and shabby. A few old women were sitting in a corner, drinking tiny glasses of sherry. One of them was smoking a long pipe. A little man in a top hat was talking to the old bartender, who was quite bald and looked like a toothless walnut.**

Everyone who had met Tom snickered at the comparison.

**The low buzz of chatter stopped when they walked in. Everyone seemed to know Hagrid; they waved and smiled at him, and the bartender reached for a glass, saying, "The usual, Hagrid?"**

"**Can't, Tom, I'm on Hogwarts business," said Hagrid, clapping both his great hands on Harry and Alex's shoulders, making Harry's knees buckle and Alex wince.**

Hagrid smiled sheepishly.

"**Good Lord," said the bartender, peering at Harry, "is this — can this be —?"**

"Oh, here it comes." groaned Harry. Alex patted him on the shoulder.

**The Leaky Cauldron had suddenly gone completely still and silent.**

"**Bless my soul," whispered the old bartender, "Harry and Alexis Potter… what an honor."**

Harry grimaced, while Alex huffed.

"Why won't people stop calling me by my full name?"

"Well _Alexis,_ it's that people don't really know you didn't like it _Alexis,_ so I think you should get used to it, isn't that right _Alexis_?"

The glare Alex sent George made him shrink away from her in fear.

**He hurried out from behind the bar, rushed toward Harry and seized his hand, tears in his eyes.**

"**Welcome back, Potters, welcome back."**

**Harry and Alex didn't know what to say. Everyone was looking at them. The old woman with the pipe was puffing on it without realizing it had gone out. Hagrid was beaming.**

**Then there was a great scraping of chairs and the next moment, Harry and Alex found themselved shaking hands with everyone in the Leaky Cauldron.**

The twins banged their heads in the table.

"**Doris Crockford, Mr. Potter, can't believe I'm meeting you at last."**

"**So proud, Ms. Potter, I'm just so proud."**

"**Always wanted to shake your hand — I'm all of a flutter."**

"**Delighted, Mr. Potter, just can't tell you, Diggle's the name, Dedalus Diggle."**

"**I've seen you before!" said Harry, as Dedalus Diggle's top hat fell off in his excitement. "You bowed to me once in a shop."**

"**He remembers!" cried Dedalus Diggle, looking around at everyone. "Did you hear that? He remembers me!"**

People snickered.

**Harry and Alex shook hands again and again — Doris Crockford kept coming back for more.**

**A pale young man made his way forward, very nervously. One of his eyes was twitching.**

Harry, and Ron glared at the book, while Alex and Hermione snarled.

"**Professor Quirrell!" said Hagrid. "Harry, Alex, Professor Quirrell will be one of your teachers at Hogwarts."**

"**P-P-Potters," stammered Professor Quirrell, grasping Alex's hand, "c-can't t-tell you how p-pleased I am to meet you."**

"Merlin, not that stutter again." Angelina groaned.

"**What sort of magic do you teach, Professor Quirrell?"**

"**D-Defense Against the D-D-Dark Arts," muttered Professor Quirrell, as though he'd rather not think about it.**

"**N-not that you n-need it, eh, P-P-Potters?" He laughed nervously. "You'll be g-getting all your equipment, I suppose? I've g-got to p-pick up a new b-book on vampires, m-myself." He looked terrified at the very thought.**

"Idiot." Snape sneered.

**But the others wouldn't let Professor Quirrell keep the twins to himself. It took almost ten minutes to get away from them all.**

"Hagrid fed them to the wolves!" cried a Hufflepuff.

**At last, Hagrid managed to make himself heard over the babble.**

"**Must get on — lots ter buy. Come on, you two."**

**Doris Crockford shook Harry's hand one last time, and Hagrid led them through the bar and out into a small, walled courtyard, where there was nothing but a trash can and a few weeds.**

**Hagrid grinned at Harry and Alex.**

"**Told yeh, didn't I? Told yeh you was famous. Even Professor Quirrell was tremblin' ter meet yeh — mind you, he's usually tremblin'."**

Everyone who knew the full story of what had happened that year scowled.

"**Is he always that nervous?"**

"Nah."

"**Oh, yeah. Poor bloke. Brilliant mind.**

**He was fine while he was studyin' outta books but then he took a year off ter get some firsthand experience… They say he met vampires in the Black Forest, and there was a nasty bit o' trouble with a hag — never been the same since.**

**Scared of the students, scared of his own subject — now, where's me umbrella?"**

**Vampires? Hags? the twins' heads were swimming. Hagrid, meanwhile, was counting bricks in the wall above the trash can.**

"**Three up… two across…" he muttered. "Right, stand back."**

**He tapped the wall three times with the point of his umbrella.**

**The brick he had touched quivered — it wriggled — in the middle, a small hole appeared — it grew wider and wider — a second later they were facing an archway large enough even for Hagrid, an archway onto a cobbled street that twisted and turned out of sight.**

"**Welcome," said Hagrid, "to Diagon Alley."**

A lot of the students sighed with distant smiles on their faces as they remembered their first trips to Diagon Alley.

**He grinned at Harry and Alex's amazement. They stepped through the archway. Harry looked quickly over his shoulder and saw the archway shrink instantly back into solid wall.**

**The sun shone brightly on a stack of cauldrons outside the nearest shop. Cauldrons — All Sizes — Copper, Brass, Pewter, Silver — Self-Stirring — Collapsible, said a sign hanging over them.**

"**Yeah, you'll be needin' one," said Hagrid, "but we gotta get yer money first."**

**Harry wished he had about eight more eyes.**

Ron shuddered at the spider reference. Alex snickered.

**He turned his head in every direction as they walked up the street, trying to look at everything at once: the shops, the things outside them, the people doing their shopping. A plump woman outside an Apothecary was shaking her head as they passed, saying, "Dragon liver, sixteen Sickles an ounce, they're mad…"**

"Wasn't that Mrs. Weasley?" Alex asked Harry, who nodded.

**A low, soft hooting came from a dark shop with a sign saying Eeylops Owl Emporium — Tawny, Screech, Barn, Brown, and Snowy. Several boys of about the twin's age had their noses pressed against a window with broomsticks in it. "Look," Harry and Alex heard one of them say, "the new Nimbus Two Thousand — fastest ever —"**

Harry and Alex smiled sadly. As much as they loved their Firebolts, they missed their old broomsticks.

**There were shops selling robes, shops selling telescopes and strange silver instruments Harry had never seen before, windows stacked with barrels of bat spleens and eels' eyes, tottering piles of spell books, quills, and rolls of parchment, potion bottles, globes of the moon…**

"**Gringotts," said Hagrid.**

**They had reached a snowy white building that towered over the other little shops. Standing beside its burnished bronze doors, wearing a uniform of scarlet and gold, was —**

"**Yeah, that's a goblin," said Hagrid quietly as they walked up the white stone steps toward him. The goblin was about a head shorter than the twins. He had a swarthy, clever face, a pointed beard and, Harry and Alex noticed, very long fingers and feet. He bowed as they walked inside. Now they were facing a second pair of doors, silver this time, with words engraved upon them:**

_**Enter, stranger, but take heed**_

_**Of what awaits the sin of greed,**_

_**For those who take, but do not earn,**_

_**Must pay most dearly in their turn.**_

_**So if you seek beneath our floors**_

_**A treasure that was never yours,**_

_**Thief, you have been warned, beware**_

_**Of finding more than treasure there.**_

"**Like I said, Yeh'd be mad ter try an' rob it," said Hagrid.**

"Does that mean Harry or Alex would try to rob it then?" Ron snickered, and he was hit by both twins.

**A pair of goblins bowed them through the silver doors and they were in a vast marble hall. About a hundred more goblins were sitting on high stools behind a long counter, scribbling in large ledgers, weighing coins in brass scales, examining precious stones through eyeglasses. There were too many doors to count leading off the hall, and yet more goblins were showing people in and out of these. Hagrid and Harry made for the counter.**

"**Morning," said Hagrid to a free goblin. "We've come ter take some money outta Mr. Harry Potter and Ms. Alexis Potter's safe."**

"**You have their key, sir?"**

"**Got it here somewhere," said Hagrid, and he started emptying his pockets onto the counter, scattering a handful of moldy dog biscuits over the goblin's book of numbers. ****The goblin wrinkled his nose.**

**Harry watched the goblin on their right weighing a pile of rubies as big as glowing coals.**

"**Got it," said Hagrid at last, holding up a tiny golden key.**

**The goblin looked at it closely.**

"**That seems to be in order."**

"**An' I've also got a letter here from Professor Dumbledore," said Hagrid importantly, throwing out his chest. "It's about the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen."**

"No!" Many cried around the Hall, while the others groaned.

**The goblin read the letter carefully.**

"**Very well," he said, handing it back to Hagrid, "I will have someone take you down to both vaults. Griphook!"**

**Griphook was yet another goblin. Once Hagrid had crammed all the dog biscuits back inside his pockets****, he and Harry followed Griphook toward one of the doors leading off the hall.**

"**What's the You-Know-What in vault seven hundred and thirteen?" Harry asked.**

"See? They're getting curious!" cried Ginny.

"**Can't tell yeh that," said Hagrid mysteriously. "Very secret. Hogwarts business. Dumbledore's trusted me. More'n my job's worth ter tell yeh that."**

**Griphook held the door open for them. The twins, who had expected more marble, was surprised. They were in a narrow stone passageway lit with flaming torches. It sloped steeply downward and there were little railway tracks on the floor. Griphook whistled and a small cart came hurtling up the tracks toward them. They climbed in — Hagrid with some difficulty — and were off.**

**At first they just hurtled through a maze of twisting passages. Harry and Alex tried to remember, left, right, right, left, middle fork, right, left, but it was impossible.**

"I couldn't even remember that far." Ron shook his head.

**The rattling cart seemed to know its own way, because Griphook wasn't steering.**

**Harry's eyes stung as the cold air rushed past them, but he kept them wide open. Once, he thought he saw a burst of fire at the end of a passage and he and Alex twisted around to see if it was a dragon, but too late — they plunged even deeper, passing an underground lake where huge stalactites and stalagmites grew from the ceiling and floor.**

"**I never know," Alex called to Hagrid over the noise of the cart, "what's the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite?"**

"**Stalagmite's got an 'm' in it," said Hagrid.**

"Fair explanation." snickered a Ravenclaw.

"**An' don' ask me questions just now, I think I'm gonna be sick."**

"Hagrid, don't you dare vomit on them!" McGonagall scolded/

**He did look very green, and when the cart stopped at last beside a small door in the passage wall, Hagrid got out and had to lean against the wall to stop his knees from trembling.**

**Griphook unlocked the door. A lot of green smoke came billowing out, and as it cleared, the twins gasped. Inside were mounds of gold coins. Columns of silver. Heaps of little bronze Knuts.**

The twins ignored the looks they received from majority of the hall.

"**All yours," smiled Hagrid.**

**All Harry's — it was incredible. The Dursleys couldn't have known about this or they'd have had it from him faster than blinking.**

There was a lot of hissing and and growling at the mention of the Dursleys.

**How often had they complained how much the twins cost them to keep?**

**And all the time there had been a small fortune belonging to him, buried deep under London.**

"Small?" some first year Hufflepuff exclaimed incredulously.

**Hagrid helped the twins pile some of it into a bag.**

"**The gold ones are Galleons," he explained. "Seventeen silver Sickles to a Galleon and twenty-nine Knuts to a Sickle, it's easy enough. Right, that should be enough fer a couple o' terms, we'll keep the rest safe for yeh."**

**He turned to Griphook. "Vault seven hundred and thirteen now, please, and can we go more slowly?"**

"**One speed only," said Griphook.**

**They were going even deeper now and gathering speed. The air became colder and colder as they hurtled round tight corners. They went rattling over an underground ravine, and Harry leaned over the side to try to see what was down at the dark bottom, but Alex roughly pulled him back by his arm and whacked the back of his head.**

**"Do you have a bloody death wish?" she hissed.**

There where snickers around the Hall, and many Gryffindors shook their heads at their temperamental friend.

**Vault seven hundred and thirteen had no keyhole.**

"A high security vault?" said Lee.

"**Stand back," said Griphook importantly. He stroked the door gently with one of his long fingers and it simply melted away.**

"**If anyone but a Gringotts goblin tried that, they'd be sucked through the door and trapped in there," said Griphook.**

"**How often do you check to see if anyone's inside?" Harry asked.**

"**About once every ten years," said Griphook with a rather nasty grin.**

"Really?" the Weasley twins drawled with evil smirks.

**"Can we lock the Dursleys in the vault then?" Alex whispered to Harry, who grinned but shook his head.**

A few Slytherins gaped at her, and Alex huffed.

"I still don't see why you won't let me lock them in the vault." she said to Harry, who laughed but waved her off.

**Something really extraordinary had to be inside this top security vault, the twins were sure, and they leaned forward eagerly, expecting to see fabulous jewels at the very least — but at first they thought it was empty. Then he noticed a grubby little package wrapped up in brown paper lying on the floor.**

**Hagrid picked it up and tucked it deep inside his coat. Harry longed to know what it was, but knew better than to ask.**

"So you can actually keep your mouth shut then, Potter?" sneered Malfoy.

Harry glared at him. "_You_ better keep your mouth shut Malfoy-"

"-before we _painfully_ shut it for you." Alex finished.

Malfoy flinched at the twins' combined glares.

"**Come on, back in this infernal cart, and don't talk to me on the way back, it's best if I keep me mouth shut," said Hagrid.**

**One wild cart ride later they stood b****linking in the sunlight outside Gringotts. Harry didn't know where to run first now that he had a bag full of money. He didn't have to know how many Galleons there were to a pound to know that he was holding more money than he and Alex had in their whole lives— more money than even Dudley had ever had.**

"**Might as well get yer uniform," said Hagrid, nodding toward Madam Malkin's Robes for All Occasions. "Listen, would yeh mind if I slipped off fer a pick-me-up in the Leaky Cauldron? I hate them Gringotts carts." He did still look a bit sick, so Harry and Alex entered Madam Malkin's shop alone, feeling nervous.**

**Madam Malkin was a squat, smiling witch dressed all in mauve.**

"**Hogwarts, dear?" she said, when Harry started to speak. "Got the lot here — another young man being fitted up just now, in fact."**

Malfoy's eyes widened. This was not going to be good for him.

**In the back of the shop, a boy with a pale, pointed face**

Those who had worked out from the description who Harry had met were laughing quietly in their seats.

**was standing on a footstool while a second witch pinned up his long black robes. Madam Malkin stood Harry on a stool next to him slipped a long robe over his head, and began to pin it to the right length.**

"**Hello," said the boy, "Hogwarts, too?"**

"**Yes," said Harry.**

"**My father's next door buying my books and mother's up the street looking at wands," said the boy.**

"How does that work? The wand chooses the owner." Cho pointed out.

**He had a bored, drawling voice.**

"I do not!" cried Malfoy.

"Yes you do." said the twins.

"**Then I'm going to drag them off to look at racing brooms. I don't see why first years can't have their own. I think I'll bully father into getting me one and I'll smuggle it in somehow."**

**The twins were strongly reminded of Dudley.**

"Never compare me with that filthy muggle!" snarled Malfoy.

"**Have **_**you **_**got your own broom?" the boy went on.**

"**No," said Alex.**

"**Play Quidditch at all?"**

"**No," Harry said again, wondering what on earth Quidditch could be.**

The Quidditch fans looked scandalized.

"_**I **_**do — Father says it's a crime if I'm not picked to play for my house, and I must say, I agree. Know what house you'll be in yet?"**

'Oh, shut up,' Dean groaned.

"**No," said Harry, feeling more stupid by the minute.**

"**Well, no one really knows until they get there, do they, but I know I'll be in Slytherin, all our family have been — imagine being in Hufflepuff, I think I'd leave, wouldn't you?"**

Most of the Hall growled in anger as they remembered Cedric.

Snape froze. James Potter had said the exact thing about Slytherins on the first train ride to Hogwarts.

"**Mmm," said Harry, wishing he could say something a bit more interesting.**

"**I say, look at that man!" said the boy suddenly, nodding toward the front window. Hagrid was standing there, grinning at Harry and Alex and pointing at two large ice creams to show he couldn't come in.**

"That's nice of him." Luna smiled.

"**That's Hagrid," said Harry, pleased to know something the boy didn't. "He works at Hogwarts."**

"**Oh," said the boy, "I've heard of him. He's a sort of servant, isn't he?"**

"He is not!" Cho snarled.

"**He's the gamekeeper," said Alex. She was liking the boy less and less every second.**

"**Yes, exactly. I heard he's a sort of **_**savage**_

"He is not!" Majority of the Hall chorused in anger. Hagrid looked touched.

— **lives in a hut on the school grounds and every now and then he gets drunk, tries to do magic, and ends up setting fire to his bed."**

People were now glaring at Malfoy, who was trying to hide behind Crabbe and Goyle.

"**We think he's brilliant," said Harry coldly. Alex stood by his side, clenching and uncleching her fists while mentally counting to ten.**

"Why?" asked Neville.

"It actually helps a person calm down." Alex shrugged.

Ron smirked, "Unless you're dealing with Malfoy."

"_**Do **_**you?" said the boy, with a slight sneer. "Why is he with you? Where are your parents?"**

"**They're dead," said Harry shortly. He didn't feel much like going into the matter with this boy.**

"No one would." Fred shook his head.

"**Oh, sorry," said the other, not sounding sorry at all.**

"Malfoy!" Snape barked, which surprised everyone in the Hall.

"**But they were **_**our **_**kind, weren't they?"**

The muggleborns growled.

"**They were a witch and wizard, if that's what you mean." Alex said icily.**

"**I really don't think they should let the other sort in, do you? They're just not the same, they've never been brought up to know our ways.**

"Horrible little twat!" snarled Katie.

**Some of them have never even heard of Hogwarts until they get the letter, imagine. I think they should keep it in the old wizarding families. What's your surname, anyway?"**

"It doesn't matter!" Hermione screeched.

**But before Harry could answer, Madam Malkin said, "That's you done, my dear," and the twins, not sorry for an excuse to stop talking to the boy, hopped down from the footstools.**

"**Well, I'll see you at Hogwarts, I suppose," said the drawling boy.**

**"I hope not." Alex snarled under her breath. "Horrible, ferret-faced git."**

Those who had seen the encounter between "Moody" and Malfoy in fourth year laughed.

**The twins were rather quiet as they ate the ice cream Hagrid had bought them (chocolate and raspberry with chopped nuts for Harry, and plain raspberry with sprinkles for Alex).**

"**What's up?" said Hagrid.**

"**Nothing," Harry lied.**

"You two are awful liars." Fred and George laughed. Upon hearing this, the Minister looked straight at them.

**They stopped to buy parchment and quills. Harry cheered up a bit when he found a bottle of ink that changed color as you wrote.**

**When they had left the shop, Alex said, "Hagrid, what's Quidditch?"**

"**Blimey, Harry, I keep forgettin' how little yeh know — not knowin' about Quidditch!"**

"James would be rolling in his grave." McGonagall commented offhandedly.

"**Don't make us feel worse," said Harry. He told Hagrid about the pale boy in Madam Malkin's.**

"— **and he said people from Muggle families shouldn't even be allowed in —"**

"Git."

"**Yer not **_**from **_**a Muggle family. If he'd known who yeh **_**were **_**— he's grown up knowin' yer names if his parents are wizardin' folk. You saw what everyone in the Leaky Cauldron was like when they saw yeh.**

"Don't remind us." Harry groaned.

**Anyway, what does he know about it, some o' the best I ever saw were the only ones with magic in 'em in a long line o' Muggles — look at yer mum! Look what she had fer a sister!"**

"A horse?" Alex suggested sarcastically.

"**So what **_**is **_**Quidditch?"**

"**It's our sport. Wizard sport. It's like — like soccer in the Muggle world — everyone follows Quidditch — played up in the air on broomsticks and there's four balls — sorta hard ter explain the rules."**

"No it isn't!" Many Quidditch players protested.

"**And what are Slytherin and Hufflepuff?"**

"**School houses. There's four. Everyone says Hufflepuff are a lot o' duffers, but —"**

"**I bet I'm in Hufflepuff," said Alex gloomily.**

"**Better Hufflepuff than Slytherin," said Hagrid darkly.**

There was an agreement from three of the four Houses. Unnoticed by everyone else, the twins shared a nervous look.

"**There's not a single witch or wizard who went bad who wasn't in Slytherin. You-Know-Who was one."**

"**Vol-, sorry —You-Know-Who was at Hogwarts?"**

"**Years an' years ago," said Hagrid.**

**They bought the twins' school books in a shop called Flourish and Blotts where the shelves were stacked to the ceiling with books as large as paving stones bound in leather; books the size of postage stamps in covers of silk; books full of peculiar symbols and a few books with nothing in them at all. Even Dudley, who never read anything, would have been wild to get his hands on some of these. Hagrid almost had to drag Harry away from **_**Curses and Countercurses (Bewitch Your Friends and Befuddle Your Enemies with the Latest Revenges: Hair Loss, Jelly-Legs, Tongue-Tying and Much, Much More) **_**by Professor Vindictus Viridian.**

"Why?"

"**I was trying to find out how to curse Dudley."**

The Weasley twins high fived Harry, wearing proud expressions. Alex giggled.

"**I'm not sayin' that's not a good idea, but yer not ter use magic in the Muggle world except in very special circumstances," said Hagrid.**

"Like dementor attacks?" Harry said loudly with a pointed look at Fudge.

"**An' anyway, yeh couldn' work any of them curses yet, yeh'll need a lot more study before yeh get ter that level."**

**Alex on the other hand, wasn't listening.**

"What's new?"

**She already had a few ideas going through her mind as she continued to read 101 Best Wizarding Pranks by ****Vindictus Viridian.**

"What happened to 'I'm not a prankster'?" said Hermione with a grin.

Fred and George smiled widely.

"Fred, I think you've got a keeper."

"I do indeed, George."

"Shut up you two."

**Hagrid wouldn't let the twins buy a solid gold cauldron, either ("It says pewter on yer list"), but they got a nice set of scales for weighing potion ingredients and a collapsible brass telescope. Then they visited the Apothecary, which was fascinating enough to make up for its horrible smell, a mixture of bad eggs and rotted cabbages. Barrels of slimy stuff stood on the floor; jars of herbs, dried roots, and bright powders lined the walls; bundles of feathers, strings of fangs, and snarled claws hung from the ceiling.**

"That was before I met the Professor." Harry said pointedly, earning an elbow in the ribs from Alex.

**While Hagrid asked the man behind the counter for a supply of some basic potion ingredients for Harry, Harry himself examined silver unicorn horns at twenty-one Galleons each and minuscule, glittery-black beetle eyes (five Knuts a scoop).**

**Outside the Apothecary, Hagrid checked the twins' list again.**

"**Just yer wands left — A yeah, an' I still haven't got yeh two a birthday present."**

**Alex was quick to protest, feeling herself go red.**

"**You don't have to —"**

"**I know I don't have to. Tell yeh what, I'll get yer animal. Not a toad, toads went outta fashion years ago, yeh'd be laughed at**

"Evil toad." muttered Neville.

— **an' I don' like cats, they make me sneeze. I'll get yer an owl. All the kids want owls, they're dead useful, ****carry yer mail an' everythin'."**

**Twenty minutes later, they left Eeylops Owl Emporium, which had been dark and full of rustling and flickering, jewel-bright eyes. Harry now carried a large cage that held a beautiful snowy owl, fast asleep with her head under her wing. While Alex had an elegant black owl that kept glancing at her through the bars of it's cage with curious eyes.**

"So that's how you got Hedwig and Midnight..." Alicia trailed off at the thought of the two owls.

**They couldn't stop stammering their thanks, sounding just like Professor Quirrell.**

The twins grimaced.

"**Don' mention it," said Hagrid gruffly. "Don' expect you've had a lotta presents from them Dursleys.**

There was a lot of cursing, growling, hissing in the Hall.

**Just Ollivanders left now — only place fer wands, Ollivanders, and yeh gotta have the best wand."**

**A magic wand… this was what Harry and Alex had been really looking forward to.**

**The last shop was narrow and shabby. Peeling gold letters over the door read Ollivanders: Makers of Fine Wands since 382 B.C. A single wand lay on a faded purple cushion in the dusty window.**

**A tinkling bell rang somewhere in the depths of the shop as they stepped inside. It was a tiny place, empty except for a single, spindly chair that Hagrid sat on to wait. Harry felt strangely as though he had entered a very strict library; he swallowed a lot of new questions that had just occurred to him and looked instead at the thousands of narrow boxes piled neatly right up to the ceiling. For some reason, the back of his neck prickled. Alex visibly shivered at the thick atmosphere.**

Dumbledore sat forward with interest.

**The very dust and silence in here seemed to tingle with some secret magic.**

Many of the teachers shared a look.

"**Good afternoon," said a soft voice. Harry jumped, and Alex automatically gripped her brother's arm. Hagrid must have jumped, too, because there was a loud crunching noise and he got quickly off the spindly chair.**

Many people laughed at this.

**An old man was standing before them, his wide, pale eyes shining like moons through the gloom of the shop.**

"**Hello," said Harry awkwardly.**

"**Ah yes," said the man. "Yes, yes. I thought I'd be seeing you soon. Harry and Alexis Potter." It wasn't a question. "You have your mother's eyes. It seems only yesterday she was in here herself, buying her first wand. Ten and a quarter inches long, swishy, made of willow. Nice wand for charm work."**

The teachers smiled sadly.

**Mr. Ollivander moved closer to Harry. Harry wished he would blink. Those silvery eyes were a bit creepy.**

"**Your father, on the other hand, favored a mahogany wand. Eleven inches. Pliable. A little more power and excellent for transfiguration.**

McGonagall looked down.

**Well, I say your father favored it — it's really the wand that chooses the wizard, of course."**

**Mr. Ollivander had come so close that he and Harry were almost nose to nose. Harry could see himself reflected in those misty eyes.**

"**And that's where…"**

**Mr. Ollivander touched the lightning scar on the twins' foreheads with a long, white finger.**

People shuddered.

"**I'm sorry to say I sold the wand that did it," he said softly. "Thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Powerful wand, very powerful, and in the wrong hands… well, if I'd known what that wand was going out into the world to do…"**

Dumbledore sighed.

**He shook his head and then, to the twins' relief, spotted Hagrid.**

"**Rubeus! Rubeus Hagrid! How nice to see you again… Oak, sixteen inches, rather bendy, wasn't it?"**

"**It was, sir, yes," said Hagrid.**

"**Good wand, that one. But I suppose they snapped it in half when you got expelled?" said Mr. Ollivander, suddenly stern.**

"**Er — yes, they did, yes," said Hagrid, shuffling his feet. "I've still got the pieces, though," he added brightly.**

"**But you don't **_**use **_**them?" said Mr. Ollivander sharply.**

"**Oh, no, sir," said Hagrid quickly. Harry noticed he gripped his pink umbrella very tightly as he spoke.**

The Weasley twins smirked.

"Oh of course," said Fred.

"He doesn't use them, sure." added George.

"**Hmmm," said Mr. Ollivander, giving Hagrid a piercing look. "Well, now — Mr. Potter. Let me see." He pulled a long tape measure with silver markings out of his pocket. "Which is your wand arm?"**

"**Er — well, I'm right-handed," said Harry.**

"**Hold out your arm. That's it." He measured Harry from shoulder to finger, then wrist to elbow, shoulder to floor, knee to armpit and round his head. As he measured, he said, "Every Ollivander wand has a core of a powerful magical substance, Mr. Potter. We use unicorn hairs, phoenix tail feathers, and the heartstrings of dragons. No two Ollivander wands are the same, just as no two unicorns, dragons, or phoenixes are quite the same. And of course, you will never get such good results with another wizard's wand."**

Harry, Ron and Alex smirked as they remembered the incident in the chamber with Lockhart.

**Harry suddenly realized that the tape measure, which was measuring between his nostrils, was doing this on its own. Mr. Ollivander was flitting around the shelves, taking down boxes.**

"**That will do," he said, and the tape measure crumpled into a heap on the floor. "Right then, Mr. Potter. Try this one. Beechwood and dragon heartstring. Nine inches. Nice and flexible. just take it and give it a wave."**

**Harry took the wand and (feeling foolish) waved it around a bit, but Mr. Ollivander snatched it out of his hand almost at once.**

"But you didn't even try it yet." said Colin.

"**Maple and phoenix feather. Seven inches. Quite whippy. Try —"**

**Harry tried — but he had hardly raised the wand when it, too, was snatched back by Mr. Ollivander.**

"**No, no — here, ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy. Go on, go on, try it out."**

**Harry tried. And tried. He had no idea what Mr. Ollivander was waiting for. The pile of tried wands was mounting higher and higher on the spindly chair, but the more wands Mr. Ollivander pulled from the shelves, the happier he seemed to become.**

"How many was that exactly?" asked Ginny.

Harry shrugged, "I lost count after fifteen."

"**Tricky customer, eh? Not to worry, we'll find the perfect match here somewhere — I wonder, now — yes, why not — unusual combination — holly and phoenix feather, eleven inches, nice and supple."**

**Harry took the wand. He felt a sudden warmth in his fingers. He raised the wand above his head, brought it swishing down through the dusty air and a stream of red and gold sparks shot from the end like a firework, throwing dancing spots of light on to the walls.**

The Weasley twins whooped.

**Now it was Alex's turn. She was rather relieved that she didn't have to try as many wands as Harry did, though.**

"That's still not fair." Harry huffed.

**"Yes - well - ebony and phoenix feather, thirteen inches, rigid."**

"Wow," Hannah shook her head, "Rigid wands are always difficult to handle."

**Warmth spread throughout her body, and white and green sparks shot from the end.**

The Gryffindors were quiet.

"Slytherin colors?" Fred asked incredulously. Alex shot a nervous look at Harry, who returned it.

**Hagrid whooped and clapped and Mr. Ollivander cried, "Oh, bravo! Yes, indeed, oh, very good. Well, well, well… how curious… how very curious…"**

_Oh no…_ Harry thought the same time Alex muttered profanities under her breath.

**He put Alex's wand back into its box and wrapped it in brown paper, still muttering, "Curious… curious…"**

"**Sorry," said Harry, "but **_**what's **_**curious?"**

Alex gripped Harry's hand tightly.

**Mr. Ollivander fixed Harry with his pale stare.**

"**I remember every wand I've ever sold, Mr. Potter. Every single wand.**

"Creepy."

**It so happens that the phoenix whose tail feather is in your wand, gave another feather — just two others. One resides in your sister's wand. It is very curious indeed that you two should be destined for this wands when their brother — why, their brother gave you those scars."**

The Hall was silent. Even the Slytherins had nothing to say.

"WHAT?" Ginny shrieked.

"The _twins_ to You-Know-Who's wand." Zacharias sneered. "Wouldn't be surprised if you two turned to the dark side."

"Mr. Smith!" Professor Sprout admonished.

"_We_ never killed anyone, unlike _him._" Harry snarled.

"Besides," Alex sneered. "If we turn evil, you'll be the first to know."

Both looked like pure Slytherins at the moment, that it frightened most of the Hall. The twins were scary when they were angry, but this was a new level.

Professor Sprout cleared her throat, and continued reading.

**Both swallowed.**

"**Yes, thirteen-and-a-half inches. Yew. Curious indeed how these things happen. The wand chooses the wizard, remember… I think we must expect great things from you, Mr. Potter… After all, He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named did great things — terrible, yes, but great."**

**Harry shivered. He wasn't sure he liked Mr. Ollivander too much.**

**He and Alex paid fourteen gold Galleons for their wands, and Mr. Ollivander bowed them from his shop.**

**The late afternoon sun hung low in the sky as Harry, Alex and Hagrid made their way back down Diagon Alley, back through the wall, back through the Leaky Cauldron, now empty. Neither Harry nor Alex spoke at all as they walked down the road; they didn't even notice how much people were gawking at them on the Underground, laden as they were with all their funny-shaped packages, with the owls asleep in their cages on either twins' lap. Up another escalator, out into Paddington station; they only realized where they were when Hagrid tapped him on the shoulder.**

"**Got time fer a bite to eat before yer train leaves," he said.**

**He bought Harry and Alex a hamburger and they sat down on plastic seats to eat them. Harry kept looking around. Everything looked so strange, somehow. Alex merely stared at the table, thinking.**

"**You all right? Yer very quiet," said Hagrid.**

**Harry and Alex weren't sure they could explain. They'd just had the best birthday of their lives — and yet — they chewed their hamburgers, trying to find the words.**

"**Everyone thinks we're**** special," Alex said at last. "All those people in the Leaky Cauldron, Professor Quirrell, Mr. Ollivander… but we don't know anything about magic at all. How can they expect great things?**

Snape blinked for a moment, but remembered it was Alex speaking, not Harry. So he kept his 'like father like son' belief intact.

**We're famous and we can't even remember what we're famous for. We don't know what happened when Vol-, sorry — I mean, the night our parents died."**

**Hagrid leaned across the table. Behind the wild beard and eyebrows he wore a very kind smile.**

"**Don' you worry, Alex. You'll learn fast enough. Everyone starts at the beginning at Hogwarts, you'll be just fine. Just be yerselves. I know it's hard. Yeh've been singled out, an' that's always hard.**

"No really?" Harry gasped in sarcasm.

**But yeh'll have a great time at Hogwarts — I did — still do, 'smatter of fact."**

**Hagrid helped the twins on to the train that would take them back to the Dursleys, then handed them an envelope.**

"**Yer tickets fer Hogwarts, " he said. "First o' September — King's Cross — it's all on yer tickets. Any problems with the Dursleys, send me a letter with yer owl, she'll know where to find me… . See yeh soon, Harry, Alex."**

"Wait, you didn't tell them how to get on the platform!" Hermione cried.

**The train pulled out of the station. The twins wanted to watch Hagrid until he was out of sight; they rose in their seats and pressed their noses against the window, but they blinked and Hagrid had gone.**

"That's the end of the chapter." Professor Sprout announced.

"Who shall read next?" asked Dumbledore and Hermione raised her hand.

"I will, sir."

* * *

**Hope you guys liked this chapter and please review!**

**~Cassandra**


	6. The Journey to Platform 9 and 3 Quarters

**Finally, the fourth chapter! I hope you guys like this one!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

**"The Journey From Platform Nine and Three-Quarters"** Hermione read.

"The first time we met the Weasleys." Harry and Alex smiled.

**The twins' last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun.**

"No kidding."

**True, Dudley was now so scared of them he wouldn't stay in the same room, ****while Aunt Petunia and Uncle Vernon didn't shut them in their cupboard, force them to do anything, or shout at them-in fact, they didn't speak to the twins at all.**

"Ah, pure bliss." Alex sighed.

**Half terrified,** **half furious, they acted as though any chair with either twin in it were empty. ****Although this was an improvement in many ways, it did become a bit depressing after a while.**

"You actually found it depressing?" Blaise raised an eyebrow. "All they did was mock you, insult you or abuse you."

"True." Harry answered. "But they are still family."

Many were touched by this.

**The twins kept to their room, with each other and their new owls for company. Alex named her owl Mignight, as the phrase 'black as night' suddenly popped into her mind,**

"Not very creative, but it's suitable." Alex shrugged.

**while Harry had decided to call his owl Hedwig, ****a name he had found in **_**A History**_ _**of Magic**_**. ****His school books were very interesting.**

"Nooo!" The Weasley twins cried. "We're losing you to the dark side!"

**The lay on Harry's bed reading late into the night, Hedwig and Midnight swooping in and out of the open window as they pleased. It was lucky that Aunt Petunia didn't come in to vacuum anymore, because Hedwig kept bringing back dead mice.**

"Ew..." Lavender and Parvarti scrunched their noses in disgust.

**Every night before they went to sleep, either Alex or ****Harry ticked off another day on the piece of paper they had pinned to the wall, counting down to September the first. ****On the last day of August Alex thought she'd better speak to their aunt and uncle about getting to King's Cross station the next day,**

"Why'd you do it so late?" asked Theodore Nott.

"So they won't have time to change their minds." Alex replied, and Theodore nodded.

**so she went down to the living room - Harry in tow - where they were watching a quiz show on television. Sh****e cleared her throat to let them know they were there, and Dudley screamed and ran from the room.**

There was an odd silence...

...before everyone burst into peals of laughter.

"**Er-Uncle Vernon?"**

**Uncle Vernon grunted to show he was listening.**

"**Er-we need to be at King's Cross tomorrow to-to go to Hogwarts."**

**Uncle Vernon grunted again.**

"He speaks troll?" piped Justin Finch-Fletchley. A few people who heard him laughed.

"**Would it be all right if you gave us a lift?"**

**Grunt.**

**The twins supposed that meant yes.**

"**Thank you."**

"Why on earth were you still being polite?" said Malfoy incredulously.

**They about to go back upstairs when Uncle Vernon actually spoke.**

"Aww, I thought things were getting peaceful." Ginny groaned.

"Gin, when you're around the Potters, nothing is ever peaceful." Ron patted her shoulder.

"**Funny way to get to a wizards' school, the train. Magic carpets all got punctures, have they?"**

"That's illegal." Fudge nodded.

**Harry and Alex didn't say anything.**

"**Where is this school, anyway?"**

"Scotland"

"**I don't know," said Harry, realizing this for the first time.**

**He pulled the ticket Hagrid had given him out of his pocket.**

"**We just take the train from platform nine and three-quarters at eleven o'clock," he read. ****Their aunt and uncle stared.**

"**Platform what?"**

"Platform nine and three quarters-"

"Otherwise knows as platform hard-wall." said the Potter twins. Harry, Alex and Ron flinched at this.

"**Nine and three-quarters."**

"**Don't talk rubbish," said Uncle Vernon. "There is no platform nine and three-quarters."**

"Yes there is." Snape sneered. "Petunia has been there."

"Professor? Did you know our mum when you went to Hogwarts?" Alex asked but received no response.

"**It's on our tickets."**

"**Barking,"**

"I bet Padfoot takes offense to that." said Harry. The Weasley twins perked up upon hearing the name.

**said Uncle Vernon, "howling mad,**

"I bet Moony takes offense to that." Alex nodded.

"You know the Marauders?" the Weasley twins chorused, and many of the teachers groaned.

"Maybe." the Potters smirked.

**the lot of them. ****You'll see. You just wait. All right, we'll take you to King's Cross. We're going up to London tomorrow anyway, or I wouldn't bother."**

"**Why are you going to London?" Harry asked, trying to keep things friendly.**

"Friendly?" Pansy raised an eyebrow and sneered.

"I don't remember saying that." Harry shook his head.

**Alex had the urge to hit her brother upside the head."**

"Lily used to do that to James." Flitwick said.

"**Taking Dudley to hospital," growled Uncle Vernon. "Got to have that ruddy tail removed before he goes to Smeltings."**

"Damn, he looked better with the tail." said Fred mockingly.

**Harry woke at five o'clock the next morning and was too excited and nervous to go back to sleep. So excited in fact, that he woke up Alex as he got up and pulled on his jeans because he didn't want to walk into the station in his wizard's robes****-he'd change on the train. Alex rolled her eyes, but got up to follow her brother's actions.**

**They checked their Hogwarts lists yet again to make sure they had everything they needed, saw that Hedwig and Midnight were shut safely in their cages, and then paced the room, waiting for the Dursleys to get up. Two hours later,**

"We were waiting for two hours?"

**The twins' huge, heavy trunks had been loaded into the Dursleys' car, Aunt Petunia had talked Dudley into sitting next to Harry,**

"More like bribed him."

**and they had set off.**

**They reached King's Cross at half past ten. ****Uncle Vernon dumped Harry and Alex's trunk onto a cart and wheeled it into the station for them.**

**The twins thought this was strangely kind until Uncle Vernon stopped dead, facing the platforms with a nasty grin on his face.**

"That's not good." Astoria Greengrass said.

"**Well, there you are, boy, girl. Platform nine-platform ten. Your platform should be somewhere in the middle, ****but they don't seem to have built it yet, do they?"**

**He was quite right, of course.**

"Not." said Alex.

"What do you want, Potter?" Theodore mockingly called from Slytherin table. People were caught between laughing, or being shocked at the fact that a Slytherin just made a joke.

**There was a big plastic number nine over one platform and a big plastic number ten over the one next to it, and in the middle, nothing at all.**

"**Have a good term," said Uncle Vernon with an even nastier smile. He left without another word. Harry and Alex turned and saw the Dursleys drive away.**

Snape sneered.

**All three of them were laughing.**

"Gits"

**Harry's mouth went rather dry. What on earth was they going to do? They was starting to attract a lot of funny looks, because of Hedwig and Midnight. He'd have to ask someone.**

**He stopped a passing guard, but didn't dare mention platform nine and three-quarters.**

**The guard had never heard of Hogwarts and when neither twin couldn't even tell him what part of the country it was in,** **he started to get annoyed, as though Harry and Alex were being stupid on purpose.**

Alex snorted. "Oh please."

**Getting desperate, Alex asked the guard for the train that left at eleven o'clock, but the guard said there wasn't one. ****In the end the guard strode away, muttering about time wasters.**

**The twins were now trying hard not to panic. According to the large clock over the arrivals board, they had ten minutes left to get on the train to Hogwarts and they had no idea how to do it; they was stranded in the middle of a station with a trunk they could hardly lift, a pocket full of wizard money, and large owls.**

"Not good."

**Hagrid must have forgotten to tell him something you had to do, like tapping the third brick on the left to get into Diagon Alley. Both wondered if they should get out their wands and start tapping the ticket inspector's stand between platforms nine and ten.**

"Wow, good thing we didn't. That would have been a disaster."

**At that moment a group of people passed just behind him and he caught a few words of what they were saying.**

"**-packed with Muggles, of course-"**

"And enter the Weasleys!" Harry called.

**Harry and Alex swung around. The speaker was a plump woman** **who was talking to four boys, all with flaming red hair.**

Cheers erupted.

**Each of them was pushing a trunk like Harry and Alex's in front of them-and they had an **_**owl.**_

**Heart hammering, ****the twins pushed their cart after them. They stopped and so did they, ****just near enough to hear what they were saying.**

"**Now, what's the platform number?" said the boys' mother.**

"Why ask?" asked Madam Pomfrey.

"**Nine and three-quarters!" piped a small girl, also red-headed, who was holding her hand,**

"That was cute." Alex grinned. Ginny reached behind Harry and smacked Alex on the arm.

"**Mum, can't I go…"**

"**You're not old enough, Ginny, now be quiet. ****All right, Percy,** **you go first."**

Fred, George, Ron and Ginny all growled. Percy had to flinch at the hostility.

**What looked like the oldest boy marched ****toward platforms nine and ten. Harry watched, careful not to blink in case he missed it-but just as the boy reached the dividing barrier between to the two platforms, a large crowd of tourists came swarming ****in front of him and by the time the last backpack had cleared away, the boy had vanished.**

"**Fred, you next," the plump woman said.**

"**I'm not Fred, I'm George," said the boy. "Honestly, woman, you call yourself our mother? Can't you **_**tell**_** I'm George?"**

**Alex giggled softly. The boy must have heard this, because he turned his head in her direction. Once he spotted her, he smirked and winked, earning another giggle from Alex.**

"Ooooh." most of the Hall chorused.

"You guys haven't met each other yet, and you're already flirting." Lee shook his head.

"You should have seen them when they actually met." George snickered.

"What happened?" asked Angelina.

"Just read."

"**Sorry, George, dear."**

"**Only joking, I am Fred,"**

People snorted.

**said the boy, and off he went. His twin called after him to hurry up, and he must have done so, because a second later, he had gone-but how had he done it?**

"Magic"

**Now the third brother was walking briskly toward the barrier-he was almost there-and then, quite suddenly, he wasn't anywhere.**

**There was nothing else for it.**

"**Excuse me," Harry said to the plump woman, Alex trailing behind him.**

"**Hello, dears," she said. "First time at Hogwarts? Ron's new, too."**

**She pointed at the last and youngest of her sons. He was tall, thing, and gangling, with freckles, big hands and feet, and a long nose.**

People snickered at Ron's description.

"We didn't write this!" Harry said quickly.

"**Yes," said Alex. "The thing is-the thing is, we don't know how to -"**

"**How to get onto the platform?" she said kindly, and Harry and Alex nodded.**

"**Not to worry," she said. "All you have to do is walk straight at the barrier between platforms nine and ten. Don't stop and don't be scared you'll crash into it,**

Harry, Alex and Ron flinched again.

**that's very important. Best to do it at a bit of a run if you're nervous. Go on, go now before Ron."**

"**Er-okay," said Harry.**

**He pushed his trolley around and stared at the barrier. ****It looked very solid.**

"It is." Alex grimaced.

**He started to walk toward it. People jostled him on their way to platforms nine and ten. Harry walked more quickly. He was going to smash right into that barrier and then he'd be in trouble**

"That was painful." Ron winced.

**-leaning forward over his cart, he broke into a heavy run-the barrier was coming nearer and nearer-he wouldn't be able to stop****-the cart was out of control-he was a foot away-he closed his eyes ready for the crash-**

**It didn't come…he kept on running…**

"Lucky that time." said Harry.

**he opened his eyes. ****A scarlet steam engine was waiting next to a platform packed with people. A sign overhead said Hogwarts Express, eleven o'clock. ****Harry looked behind him and saw a wrought-iron archway where the barrier had been, with the words **_**Platform Nine and Three-Quarters**_** on it. He had done it. Alex appeared beside him not to long after, with the same awed look on her face.**

**Smoke from the engine drifted over the heads of the chattering crowd, while cats of every colour wound here and there between their legs. ****Owls hooted to one another in a disgruntled sort of way over the babble and the scraping of heavy trunks. ****The first few carriages were already packed with students, some hanging out of the window to talk to their families, some fighting over seats.**

**The twins pushed their carts off down the platform in search of an empty seat. He passed a round-faced boy who was saying, "Gran, I've lost my toad again."**

"**Oh, **_**Neville**_**," he heard the old woman sigh.**

Neville mutters.

**A boy with dreadlocks was surrounded by a small crowd.**

"**Give us a look, Lee, go on."**

**The boy lifted the lid of a box in his arms, and the people around him shrieked and yelled as something inside poked out a long, hairy leg.**

Ron shuddered.

**Harry and Alex pressed on through the crowd until tthey found an empty compartment near the end of the train. ****Harry put Hedwig inside first and then started to shove and heave his trunk toward the train door. He tried to lift it up the stops but could hardly raise one end and twice he dropped it painfully on Alex's foot.**

**"Gah! Bloody hell, Harry!"**

**"Sorry!"**

"That must have hurt a lot." Many winced.

"**Want a hand?" It was one of the red-haired twins they'd followed through the barrier.**

"**Yes, please," Harry panted.**

**"Before he decides to drop it on our feet." Alex winced.**

"**Oy, Fred! C'mere and help!"**

**The other twin approached them, and smiled as he saw Alex, who smiled back.**

"Awww..." Majority of the Hall cooed.

**With the twins' help, Harry and Alex's trunk was at last tucked away in a corner of the compartment.**

"**Thanks," said Harry, pushing his sweaty hair out of his eyes, Alex next to him, panting.**

"**What's that?" said one of the twins suddenly, pointing at Harry's lightning scar.**

"**Blimey," said the other twin. "Are you-?"**

"Dear Merlin..." Harry groaned.

"**He **_**is**_**," said the first twin. "Aren't you?" he added to Harry.**

"**What?" said Harry.**

"_**Harry Potter**_**," chorused the twins.**

"**Oh, him," said Harry.**

People laughed.

"Oh him?" Hermione snorted.

"**I mean, yes, I am."**

**The two boys then turned to Alex.**

**"Then, you must be _Alexis Potter_!" they chorused.**

**Alex huffed, "It's just Alex, if you don't mind."**

**The twin, Alex now knew was Fred, grinned.**

"You can tell them apart?" Ginny said, disbelieving.

Alex nodded, "Harry can too. It must be a twin thing."

**"Nice to meet you, Alex." He took her hand and lifted it to his lips, gently kissing it. Alex felt herself turning red.**

More howls and catcalls.

**"You too."**

**Then, a voice came floating in through the train's open door.**

"**Fred? George? Are you there"**

"**Coming, Mum."**

**With a last look at Harry, and a wink at Alex, the twins hopped off the train.**

**The twins sat down across each other, next to the window where, half hidden, they could watch the red-haired family on the platform and hear what they were saying.**

The Weasleys look scandalized.

"You heard what we said?" Ginny choked out.

"Yup. We heard everything." said Harry.

Alex gave Fred a pointed look, "And we mean _everything._"

Fred blushed redder than his hair.

**Their mother had just taken out her handkerchief.** **"Ron, you've got something on your nose."**

**The youngest boy tried to jerk out of the way, but she grabbed him and began rubbing the end of his nose.**

"That was embarrassing" Ron shook his head.

"_**Mum**_**-geroff." ****He wriggled free.**

"**Aaah, has ickle Ronnie got somefink on his nosie?" said one of the twins.**

People laughed.

"**Shut up," said Ron.**

"**Where's Percy?" ****said their mother.**

"**He's coming now."**

**The oldest boy came striding into sight. He had already changed into his billowing black Hogwarts robes, ****and the twins noticed a shiny silver badge on his chest with the letter **_**P**_** in it.**

"Which had been polished several hundred times." piped George, and Percy flushed in annoyance.

"**Can't stay long, Mother," he said. "I'm up front, the prefects have got two compartments to themselves -"**

"**Oh, are you a **_**prefect**_**, Percy?" said one of the twins,**

"That was Fred." Alex nodded.

"You would know, wouldn't you?" Harry teased, and Alex elbowed him.

**with an air of great surprise. "You should have said something, we had no idea."**

"**Hang on, I think I remember him saying something about it," said the other twin.**

"**Once-"**

"**Or twice-"**

"**A minute-"**

"**All summer-"**

More laughs.

"**Oh, shut up," said Percy the Prefect.**

"**How come Percy gets new robes, anyway?" said one of the twins.**

"**Because he's a **_**prefect**_**," said their mother fondly.**

"How does that make him special?" asked Seamus.

"**All right, dear, well, have a good term-send me an owl when you get there."**

**She kissed Percy on the cheek and he left. Then she turned to the twins.**

"This is going to get really confusing." Dean shook his head.

"**Now, you two-this year, you behave yourselves.**

"Fat chance." Angelina snorted.

**If I get one more owl telling me you've-you've blown up a toilet or-"**.

"Never give a prankster ideas." Alex and Harry shook their heads.

"Indeed. Minerva learned that the hard way." said Flitwick, and the transfiguration professor huffed.

"**Blown up a toilet? We've never blown up a toilet."**

"Dear Merlin" McGonagall groaned.

"At least we know where they got the idea now." said Alicia.

"**Great idea though, thanks, Mom."**

"**It's **_**not funny**_**.**

"Yes it is!" Most of the Hall chorused.

**And look after Ron."**

"**Don't worry, ickle Ronniekins is safe with us."**

"**Shut up," said Ron again. He was almost as tall as the twins already and his nose was still pink where his mother had rubbed it.**

"**Hey, Mum, guess what? Guess who we just met on the train?"**

Alex and Harry shared a look.

**Harry and Alex leaned back quickly so they couldn't see them looking.**

"**You know that black-haired boy and girl who was near us in the station? Know who they are?"**

"**Who?"**

"_**Harry and Alexis Potter**_**!"**

**Harry and Alex heard the little girl's voice.**

"**Oh, Mum, can I go on the train and see him, Mum, oh please…."**

**Alex then grinned at Harry, who was turning an interesting shade of red.**

"Anyone else noticed that Ginny only said 'him'?" Hermione grinned.

"**You've already seen him, Ginny, and the poor boy isn't something you goggle at in a zoo. Are they really, Fred? ****How do you know?"**

"**Asked them. Saw Harry's scar. It's really there****-like lightning."**

**"Not to mention Freddie here seems to be a bit smitten with little miss Potter."**

**"Shut up, George!"**

**It was Harry's turn to grin as he watched his sister's eyes widen a bit, the slightest blush gracing her cheeks.**

**'You like him.' he mouthed, and Alex glared at him.**

**'Shut up!' she mouthed back.**

"Ooooh!" Almost everyone in the Hall chorused.

"Talk about mutual feelings." Cho called.

"**Poor **_**dears**_**-no wonder they were alone, I wondered. They were ever so polite when they asked how to get onto the platform."**

"**Never mind that, do you think they remember what You-Know-Who looks like?"**

"Mr. Weasley!"

"We didn't ask them, Professor!"

**Their mother suddenly became very stern.**

"**I forbid you to ask him, Fred. No, don't you dare. As though he needs reminding of that on his first day at school."**

"**All right, keep your hair on."**

People snickered.

**A whistle sounded.**

"**Hurry up!" their mother said, and the three boys clambered onto the train. They leaned out of the window for her to kiss them good-bye, ****and their younger sister began to cry.**

"Awww!" Alex and Hermione cooed, a bit mockingly. Ginny glared at them.

"**Don't, Ginny, we'll send you loads of owls."**

"**We'll send you a Hogwarts toilet seat."**

Many laughed at this.

"You know, i never got that." said Ginny.

"We sent it to someone who needed it more." said Fred as he glanced down at Alex, who smiled.

"_**George**_**!"**

"**Only joking, Mum."**

"No they weren't." said Luna.

**The train began to move. Harry and Alex saw the boys' mother waving and their sister, half laughing, half crying, running to keep up with the train ****until it gathered too much speed, then she fell back ****and waved.**

**The twins ****watched the girl and her mother disappear as the train rounded the corner. Houses flashed past the window. They felt a great leap of excitement. They didn't know what they were going to ****-but it had to be better than what they were leaving behind.**

"I still stand with that statement." said Harry.

**The door to the compartment slid open and the youngest redheaded boy came in.**

"Ron." Alex and Harry grinned.

"**Anyone sitting there?" ****he asked, pointing at the seat opposite Harry, next to Alex. "Everywhere else is full."**

**Harry shook his head and the boy sat down. ****He glanced at Harry and then looked quickly out of the window, pretending he hadn't looked.**

**Harry saw he still had a black mark on his nose.**

"Would you quit mentioning that?" cried Ron.

"**Hey, Ron."**

**The twins were back.**

"And hilarity ensues."

"**Listen, we're going down the middle of the train-Lee Jordan's got a giant tarantula down there."**

"What happened to that thing anyway?"

Lee shrugged.

"**Right," mumbled Ron.**

"**Harry, Alex" said the other twin, "did we introduce ourselves? Fred and George Weasley. ****And this is Ron, our brother. See you later, then."**

"**Bye," said Harry, Alex and Ron. The twins slid the compartment door shut behind them.**

"**Are you really Harry Potter?" Ron blurted out.**

"No, he's Sherlock Holmes." Alex drawled sarcastically, which earned many snickers from the muggleborns and a few half-bloods, and a punch in the arm from Harry, much to the confusion of many purebloods.

**Harry nodded.**

**"And you must be Alexis Potter then?" he said to Alex, who nodded.**

**"It's just Alex. Nice to meet you, Ron."**

**But Ron wasn't listening.**

"What's new?" George snorted.

"**Oh-well, I though it might be one of Fred and George's jokes," ****said Ron. "And have you really got-you know…"**

**He pointed at Harry's forehead.**

"Mr. Weasley!"

**Harry and Alex pulled back their fringes to show the lightning scar on opposite sides of their foreheads. Ron stared.**

"**So that's where You-Know-Who-?"**

"No fair! How come Ron got to ask and we didn't?" Fred whined.

"**Yes," said Alex, "but we can't remember it."**

"**Nothing?" said Ron eagerly.**

"Ron!" Hermione paused her reading to scold him.

"**Well-we remember a lot of green light, but nothing else."**

"**Wow," said Ron. ****He sat and stared at the twins for a few moments, ****then, as though he had suddenly realized what he was doing, he looked quickly out of the window again.**

"way to be discreet." Seamus snickered.

"**Are all your family wizards?" asked Harry, who found Ron just as interesting as Ron found them.**

"**Er-yes, I think so," said Ron. "I think Mum's got a second cousin who's an accountant, but we never talk about him."**

"**So you must know loads of magic already."**

"But it's Ron!" protested Ginny.

**The Weasleys were clearly one of those old wizarding families the pale boy in Diagon Alley had talked about.**

"No they aren't." said Malfoy.

"**I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"**

"Awful."

"**Horrible-well, not all of them. Our aunt and uncle and cousin are, though." said Harry.**

"Understatement of the century." said Blaise.

**Alex sighed. "Wish we had three wizard brothers."**

"**Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy.**

Percy, Fred and George stared at Ron weirdly.

"**I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts. You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left-Bill was Head Boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch. ****Now Percy's a prefect. ****Fred and George mess around a lot, ****but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. ****Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first.**

"You really feel that way?" Fred frowned.

"Not anymore." Ron argued.

"You have no reason to feel like that Ron. You've done so many great things." said Hermoine, who blushed right after she did.

"Thanks, 'Mione." Ron smiled.

Alex and Ginny shared a 'why won't they admit their feelings yet?' look.

**You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand,**

"That would explain why you constantly failed." nodded McGonagall

**and Percy's old rat."**

**Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat grey rat, which was asleep.**

"**His name's Scabbers and he's useless,**

Harry, Alex, Ron and Hermione snarled at the mention of the traitorous rat.

**he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff-I mean, ****I got Scabbers instead."**

**Ron's ears went pink. ****He seemed to think he'd said too much, because he went back to staring out of the window. ****Harry and Alex didn't think there was anything wrong with not being able to afford an owl. After all, they'd never had any money in their lives until a month ago, ****and they told Ron so, all about having to wear Dudley's old clothes and never getting proper birthday presents. This seemed to cheer Ron up.**

"…**and until Hagrid told us, we didn't know anything about being a wizard and witch or about our parents or Voldemort-"**

**Ron gasped.**

"Dramatic." said George.

"**What?" said Harry.**

"_**You said You-Know-Who's name**_**!" ****said Ron, sounding both shocked and impressed. "I'd have thought you, of all people -"**

"it's just a name!" cried the Potter twins.

"**We're not trying to be **_**brave**_** or anything, saying the name," said Harry, "We just never knew you shouldn't. See what I mean? I've got loads to learn… I bet," he added, voicing for the first time something that had been worrying him a lot lately.**

**Alex leaned back in her seat. "I bet we're the worst in the class."**

"On the contrary, Ms. Potter, you and your brother are excellent at Defense Against the Dark Arts." said Dumbledore, earning murmurs of agreement, especially from the DA. Umbridge fumed in her seat.

"**You won't be. There's loads of people who come from Muggle families and they learn quick enough."**

George nodded his head in Hermione's direction. "That's living proof."

**While they had been talking, the train had carried them out of London. Now they were speeding past fields full of cows and sheep. ****They were quiet for a time, watching the fields and lanes flick past.**

**Around half past twelve there was a great clattering outside in the corridor and a smiling, dimpled woman slid back their door and said, "Anything off the cart, dears?"**

**The twins, who hadn't had any breakfast, leapt to their feet, but Ron's ears went pink again and he muttered that he'd brought sandwiches.**

**Harry and Alex went out into the corridor. ****They had never had any money for sweets with the Dursleys, and now that they had pockets rattling with gold and silver they ready to buy as many Mars Bars** **as they could carry,**

"Muggle sweet." said Hermione.

**-but the woman didn't have Mars Bars.**

"If it were up to Albus, the trolley would be stocked completely on lemon drops." said McGonagall, and the twins shuddered.

"Oh bloody hell." muttered Alex.

**What she did have were Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans,**

George paled as he remembered the bogie flavored one.

**Drooble's Best Blowing Gum, Chocolate Frogs, ****Pumpkin Pasties, ****Cauldron Cakes,**

Ron's stomach grumbled.

**Liquorice Wands,**

"My favorite." Alex smiled.

**and a number of other strange things the twins had never seen. Not wanting to miss anything, they got some of everything**

"How on earth can you eat so many sweets?" ironically, Goyle asked.

**and paid the woman eleven silver Sickles and seven bronze Knuts.**

"I can't believe you spent that much on sweets." mused Ginny.

**Ron stared as Harry and Alex brought it all back in to the compartment and tipped it onto an empty seat.**

"**Hungry, are you?"**

"No, Ron, they're planning to chuck it all out of the window in an attempt to rid the world of sugar highs!"

"**Starving," said Harry, taking a large bite out of a pumpkin pasty.**

**Ron had taken out a lumpy package and unwrapped it. There were four sandwiches inside. He pulled one of them apart and said, "She always forgets I don't like corned beef."**

"She got our sandwiches mixed up." said Fred.

"**Swap you for one of these," said Harry, holding up a pasty. "Go on-"**

"You're mad." said Ron.

"Not really. You're mother is actually an excellent cook." remarked Harry.

"**You don't want this, it's all dry," said Ron. "She hasn't got much time," he added quickly, "you know, with five of us."**

"**Go on, have a pasty," said Alex, who had never had anything to share before or, indeed, anyone to share it with. It was a nice feeling, ****sitting there with Harry and Ron, eating their way through all their pasties, cakes, and candies (the sandwiches lay forgotten).**

"It's a miracle you weren't sick after that." scolded Hermione.

"**What are these?" Harry asked Ron, holding up a pack of Chocolate Frogs. "They're not **_**really**_** frogs, are they?"**

The hall was silent, and most stared at the twins strangely.

**He was starting to feel that nothing would surprise him.**

"**No," said Ron. "But see what the card is. I'm missing Agrippa."**

"I've got three of him." Ginny shrugged and Ron only gaped at her.

"Why didn't you tell me?" he squeaked.

"**What?"**

"**Oh, of course, you wouldn't know****-Chocolate Frogs have cards inside them, you know, to collect - famous witches and wizards. I've got about five hundred, ****but I haven't got Agrippa or Ptolemy."**

"I've got seven Agrippas." Fred grinned and Ron gaped at him.

"Trade you." he said.

"Depends. Who you got?" asked George.

"Alex and Harry." said Ron.

"We're on chocolate frog cards?" Harry raised an eyebrow and Ron nodded.

"You two are famous after all."

"Trade you Agrippa for Alex." said Fred, who flushed as soon as he realized what he had just said. Alex blushed as well and turned away to hide it, though Harry and Ron still caught it.

**Harry unwrapped his Chocolate Frog and picked up the card. It showed a man's face. He wore half-moon glasses, had a long, crooked nose, and flowing silver hair, beard, and moustache.**

"Dumbledore!" Colin cried.

**Underneath the picture was the name Albus Dumbledore.**

"**So **_**this**_** is Dumbledore!" said Harry.**

"**Don't tell me you'd never heard of Dumbledore!"**

Ginny sent her brother an incredulous look. "Really Ron?"

**said Ron. "Can I have a frog? I might get Agrippa-thanks-"**

**Harry turned over his card and read:**

**ALBUS DUMBLEDORE**

**CURRENTLY HEADMASTER OF HOGWARTS**

**Considered by many the greatest wizard of modern times,**

"Very true." Many teachers nodded in agreement.

**Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the Dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon's blood, and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel.**

"All this time, on a chocolate frog card." Hermione grumbled.

**Professor Dumbledore enjoys chamber music and tenpin bowling**.

**Harry turned the card over and saw, to his astonishment, that Dumbledore's face had disappeared**.

"**He's gone!" Alex gasped.**

"**Well, you can't expect him to hang around all day," ****said Ron. "He'll be back. No, I've got Morgana again and I've got about six of her…do you want it? You can start collecting."**

**Ron's eyes strayed to the pile of Chocolate Frogs waiting to be unwrapped.**

"**Help yourself," said Alex. "But in, you know, the Muggle world, people just stay put in photos."**

"Weird." said Fred and George.

"**Do they? What, they don't move at all?" Ron sounded amazed. "**_**Weird!**_**"**

Many laughed as the twins exchanged horrified looks.

**Harry and Alex stared as Dumbledore sidled back into the picture on his card and gave them a small smile.**

**Ron was more interested in eating the frogs than looking at the Famous Witches and Wizards cards, while Alex had settled on taking a few bites of the licorice wands,**

"I swear, you have an obsession with those." Hermione paused and shook her head fondly.

Alex shrugged. "What? I love licorice."

**but Harry couldn't keep his eyes off them. Soon he had not only Dumbledore and Morgana, but Hengist of Woodcroft, Alberic Grunnion, ****Circe, Paracelsus, and Merlin. He finally tore his eyes away from the druidess Cliodna, who was scratching her nose, ****to open a bag of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Beans.**

Again, George grimaced.

"**You want to be careful with those," Ron warned Harry. "When they say every flavour, they **_**mean**_** every flavour****-you know, you get all the ordinary ones like chocolate ****and peppermint and marmalade, ****but then you can get spinach and liver and tripe. (Alex gagged) ****George reckons he had a bogey-flavoured one once."**

"I did. It tasted awful." the said twin scrunched his nose in disgust.

**Ron picked up a green bean, looked at it carefully, and bit into a corner.**

"**Bleaaargh-see? Sprouts."**

"Eww." said Parvarti.

**They had a good time eating the Every Flavour Beans. Harry got toast, ****coconut, baked bean, ****strawberry, curry, grass, coffee, ****sardine, and was even brave enough to nibble the end off a funny grey one Ron wouldn't touch, ****which turned out to be pepper.**

"That's lucky mate." said Dean.

**Harry and Ron tried to get Alex to eat one, as she had refused since Ron mentioned the bogie flavored one,**

"Thanks a lot Ron."

Ron chuckled.

**and eventually succeeded. She had gotten cherry, butter, tuna, dirt, and the last one had tasted like spinach though she wasn't sure.**

"How on earth did you get most of the good flavors?" asked Lee.

**The ****countryside now flying past the window was becoming wilder. The neat fields had gone. Now there were woods, twisting rivers, and dark green hills.**

**There was a knock on the door of their compartment and the round-faced boy the twins had passed on platform nine and three-quarters came in. He looked tearful.**

"**Sorry," he said, "but have you seen a toad at all?"**

"Neville." many muttered and shook their heads.

"Why didn't you just get rid of that bloody toad?" said Ron, and Hermione whacked him on the head with the book.

"Ronald!"

**When they shook their heads, he wailed, "I've lost him! He keeps getting away from me!"**

"**He'll turn up," said Harry.**

"**Yes," said the boy miserably.**

"I was miserable about the fact that he might actually turn up." said Neville disdainfully.

"**Well, if you see him…"**

**He left.**

"**Don't know why he's so bothered," said Ron. "If I'd brought a toad I'd lose it as quick as I could.**

"Trust me, I tried."

**Mind you, I brought Scabbers, so I can't talk."**

**The rat was still snoozing on Ron's lap.**

The quartet sneered again.

"**He might have died and you wouldn't know the difference,"**

"Too bad he didn't." Harry snarled.

**said Ron in disgust. "I tried to turn him yellow yesterday to make him more interesting, but the spell didn't work.**

Fred and George snickered and Ron glared at them.

**I'll show you, look…"**

Now, they burst into fits of laughter.

"I can't believe...you actually..tried it!" Fred gasped.

**He rummaged around in his trunk and pulled out a very battered-looking wand. It was chipped in places and something white was glinting at the end.**

"**Unicorn hair's nearly poking out.**

Some of the Professors tutted disapprovingly.

**Anyway-"**

**He had just raised his wand when the compartment door slid open again. The toadless boy was back, but this time he had a girl with him.**

**She was already wearing her new Hogwarts robes.**

"**Has anyone seen a toad? Neville's lost one," she said. She had a bossy sort of voice, lots of bushy brown hair, and rather large front teeth.**

"Harry! Alex!" Hermione cried.

Harry held his hands up in surrender. "We didn't write this."

Meanwhile Alex snickered, ignoring the glare Hermione sent her way.

"**We've already told him we haven't seen it," said Ron, but the girl wasn't listening, she was looking at the wand in his hand.**

"**Oh, are you doing magic? ****Let's see it, then."**

**She sat down. Ron looked taken aback.**

"**Er-all right."**

Ginny facepalmed.

**He cleared his throat.**

"_**Sunshine, daisies, butter mellow,**_

_**Turn this stupid, fat rat yellow."**_

This time, many people in the Hall laughed with the Weasley twins.

"That's not a real spell." muttered McGonagall.

**He waved his wand, but nothing happened. ****Scabbers stayed grey and fast asleep.**

"**Are you sure that's a real spell?"**

"NO!"

**said the girl. "Well, it's not very good, is it?"**

**Alex frowned at this. The girl seemed like a know-it-all in her opinion, and she didn't like the fact that she was also insulting her friend, but she couldn't seem to say anything.**

"Sorry." Alex muttered.

"It's alright. At least now I know why you didn't like me so much at first." Hermione smiled.

**"I've tried a few simple spells just for practice and it's all worked out for me. Nobody in my family's magic at all, it was ever such a surprise when I got my letter, but I was ever so pleased, ****of course, I mean, it's the very best school of witchcraft there is, ****I've heard-I've learned all our course books by heart, of course,**

"Only you Granger." Malfoy shook his head.

**I just hope it will be enough**

"It was more than enough." said Harry.

**-I'm Hermione Granger, by the way, who are you?" ****She said all this very fast.**

Hermione didn't even pause to take a breath, yet she looked perfecty fine as she said all this in one breath.

**Alex rolled her eyes, while Harry looked at Ron, and was relieved to see by his stunned face that he hadn't learned all the course books by heart either.**

Majority of the Gryffindor table snorted.

"**I'm Ron Weasley," Ron muttered.**

"**Harry Potter," said Harry.**

**"Alex Potter," mumbled Alex.**

"**Are you really?" said Hermione. "I know all about you, of course-I got a few extra books for background reading, and you're in **_**Modern Magical History **_**and **_**The Rise and Fall of the Dark Arts **_**and **_**Great Wizarding Events of the Twentieth Century**_**."**

"**Are we?" said the twins; Harry feeling dazed, and Alex was annoyed.**

"**Goodness, didn't you know, I'd have found out everything I could if it was me," said Hermione. "Do either of you know what House you'll be in? I've been asking around, and I hope I'm in Gryffindor, it sounds by far the best;**

"HECK YEAH!" The Gryffindors cheered.

**I hear Dumbledore himself was in it,**

"What?"

**but I suppose Ravenclaw wouldn't be too bad…**

The Ravenclaws cheered as well.

**Anyway, we'd better go and look for Neville's toad. You three had better change, you know, I expect we'll be there soon."**

**And she left, taking the toadless boy with her.**

"**Whatever House I'm in, I hope she's not in it," said Ron.**

"OW! Ginny, what was that for?"

**He threw his wand back into his trunk. "Stupid spell-George gave it to me, bet he knew it was a dud."**

Luna sighed. "Can't expect less from the twins."

"**What House are your brothers in?" asked Harry.**

"**Gryffindor," said Ron. Gloom seemed to be settling on him again.**

Many people from different houses, Slytherins included, raised an eyebrow.

"**Mum and Dad were in it, too. I don't know what they'll say if I'm not.**

"They wouldn't do anything."

**I don't suppose Ravenclaw **_**would**_** be too bad, but imagine if they put me in Slytherin."**

"Watch it Weasley." warned Theodore.

"**That's the House Vol-, I mean, You-Know-Who was in?"**

"**Yeah," said Ron. He flopped back into his seat, looking depressed.**

"**You know, I think the ends of Scabbers' whiskers are a bit lighter," said Alex, trying to take Ron's mind off Houses.**

"**So what do your oldest brothers do now that they've left, anyway?"**

**Harry was wondering what a wizard did once he'd finished school.**

"**Charlie's in Romania studying dragons, and Bill's in Africa doing something for Gringotts," ****said Ron. "Did you hear about Gringotts? It's been all over the **_**Daily Prophet**_**, but I don't suppose you get that with the Muggles****-someone tried to rob a high security vault."**

"Oh dear,"

**Harry and Alex stared.**

"**Really? What happened to them?"**

"**Nothing, that's why it's such big news.**

**They haven't been caught. My dad says it must've been a powerful Dark wizard to get round Gringotts, but they don't think they took anything, that's what's odd. **'**Course, everyone gets scared when something like this happens in case You-Know-Who's behind it."**

"Fudge." Alex coughed, and those within hearing range snickered, causing Umbridge to glare at them.

**Harry turned this news over in his mind. He was starting to get a prickle of fear every time You-Know-Who was mentioned. Alex looked at her brother, with the same comprehending expression on her face.**

**He supposed this was all part of entering the magical world, but it had been a lot more comfortable saying "Voldemort" without worrying.**

"**What's your Quidditch team?" Ron asked.**

"For someone who doesn't know Quidditch, you two are brilliant at it." said Fred.

"**Er-we don't know any," Harry confessed.**

"See?"

"**What!" Ron looked dumbfounded.**

"**Oh, you wait, it's the best game in the world-"**

"You sounded like Wood for a moment Ron." said Katie.

**And he was off, explaining all about the four balls and the positions of the seven players, describing famous games he'd been to with his brothers and the broomstick he'd like to get if he had the money.**

**He was just talking Harry and Alex through the finer points of the game when the ****compartment door slid open yet again, but it wasn't Neville the toadless boy, or Hermione Granger this time.**

**Three boys entered, and the twins recognized the middle one at once: it was the pale boy from Madam Malkin's robe shop. He was looking at Harry and Alex with a lot more interest than he'd shown back in Diagon Alley.**

"**Is it true?" he said. "They're saying all down the train that the Potters are in this compartment.**

"Secrets never remain kept in Hogwarts." said Padma.

**So it's you two, is it?"**

"No, it's the chocolate frog that just jumped out the window."

"**Yes," said Alex warily. She was looking at the other boys. Both of them were thickset and looked extremely mean. ****Standing on either side of the pale boy, they looked like bodyguards.**

Seamus snorted. "They are."

"**Oh, this is Crabbe and this is Goyle," said the pale boy carelessly, noticing where Alex was looking. "And my name's Malfoy, Draco Malfoy."**

**Ron gave a slight cough, which might have been hiding a snigger.**

"Might have?" Ron grinned.

**Draco Malfoy looked at him.**

"**Think my name's funny, do you?**

The quartet, along with the Gryffindor Quidditch team shared a look.

**No need to ask who you are. My father told me all the Weasleys have red hair, freckles, and more children than they can afford."**

"Git."

"Prat."

"Assh-"

"Mr. Thomas!"

**He turned back to Harry. "You'll soon find out some wizarding families are much better than others, Potters. ****You don't want to go making friends with the wrong sort.**

Three out of four houses growled.

**I can help you there."**

"No one asked for your help!"

**He held out his hand to shake Harry's, but Harry didn't take it.**

"**I think I can tell who the wrong sort are for myself, thanks," he said coolly.**

Harry's housemates congratulated him.

**"I think you're sister can answer for herself, Potter." Malfoy said harshly and turned to Alex expectantly, but she only glared.**

**"Last time I checked _Malfoy_, there's nothing wrong with being a Weasley." she spat. "And if you want to help us in staying away from the 'wrong sort', I suggest you walk away. Right now." she sneered back.**

"Fiesty." Blaise smirked.

**Malfoy was taken aback at her words, and Ron was just as shocked. Harry on the other hand knew of his sister's temper and thought it was best to not intervene.**

**Draco Malfoy didn't go red, but a pink tinge appeared in his pale cheeks.**

"**I'd be careful if I were you, Potters," he said slowly. "Unless you're a bit politer you'll go the same way as your parents. ****They didn't know what was good for them, either. You hang around with riffraff like the Weasleys and that Hagrid, and it'll rub off on you."**

"MISTER MALFOY!" Many of the teachers snarled.

**Harry, Alex and Ron stood up.**

"**Say that again," Ron said, his face as red as his hair.**

"**Oh, you're going to fight us, are you?"**

"Yes!" the three present chorused.

**Malfoy sneered.**

"**Unless you get out now," said Harry, more bravely than he felt, because Crabbe and Goyle were a lot bigger than him or Ron.**

"**But we don't feel like leaving, do we, boys? We've eaten all our food and you still seem to have some."**

**Goyle reached toward the Chocolate Frogs next to Ron**

"Bad idea."

**-Ron leapt forward, but before he'd so much as touched Goyle, Goyle let out a horrible yell.**

**Scabbers the rat** **was hanging off his finger,**

Harry growled. "The only good thing he's ever done."

**sharp little teeth sunk deep into Goyle's knuckle-Crabbe and Malfoy both backed away as Goyle swung Scabbers round and round, howling, and when Scabbers finally flew off and hit the window, ****all three of them disappeared at once.**

**Perhaps they thought there were more rats lurking among the sweets, ****or perhaps they'd heard footsteps, because a second later, Hermione Granger had come in.**

"**What **_**has**_** been going on?" she said, looking at the sweets all over the floor and Ron picking up Scabbers by his tail.**

"**I think he's been knocked out," Ron said to Harry. He looked closer at Scabbers. "No-I don't believe it-he's gone back to sleep."**

Plenty chuckled.

**And so he had.**

"**You've met Malfoy before?"**

"Sadly."

"**I've heard of his family," said Ron darkly. "They were some of the first to come back to our side after You-Know-Who disappeared. Said they'd been bewitched.**

"LIARS." Harry, Alex, Ron and Ginny protested at once. Malfoy glared at them.

**My dad doesn't believe it.**

"That's because you're dad isn't stupid, like other people from the ministry we know." Alex sent a pointed look at Fudge and Umbridge.

**He says Malfoy's father didn't need an excuse to go over to the Dark Side."**

**Alex turned to Hermione.**

**"Can we help you with something?" she asked stiffly.**

"**You'd better hurry up and put your robes on, I've just been up to the front to ask the conductor, and he says we're nearly there. You haven't been fighting, have you?**

"Not yet they haven't"

**You'll be in trouble before we even get there!"**

"I could quite honestly see that happening." said McGonagall.

"And it has already happened." Snape sent them a pointed look, especially a scolding look towards Alex, who grinned sheepishly.

"What?" asked Ron.

Alex grinned wider, "The car."

"**Scabbers has been fighting, not us," said Ron, scowling at her. "Would you mind leaving while we change?"**

"**All right-I only came in here because people outside are behaving very childishly, racing up and down the corridors," said Hermione in a sniffy voice.**

"**And you've got dirt on your nose, by the way, did you know?"**

"How many times is that going to be mentioned here?"

**Ron and Alex glared at her as she left.**

"Alex: I understand. But Ron?" Ginny grinned.

**Harry peered out of the window. It was getting dark. He could see mountains and forests under a deep purple sky. The train did seem to be slowing down.**

**Alex went to find a seperate place to change.**

**He and Ron took off their jackets and pulled on their long black robes. Ron's were a bit short for him, you could see his trainers underneath them.**

**Just as Alex returned, a voice echoed through the train: "We will be reaching Hogwarts in five minutes' time. Please leave your luggage on the train, it will be taken to the school separately."**

**Harry's stomach lurched with nerves, Alex was fidgeting with her black tie, ****and Ron, he saw, looked pale under his freckles. They crammed their pockets with the last of the sweets ****and joined the crowd thronging the corridor.**

**The train slowed right down and finally stopped. People pushed their way toward the door and out on to a tiny, dark platform.**

**Harry wrapped around his sister as she shivered in the cold night air. Her skirt was most definitely not helping her.**

**Then a lamp came bobbing over the heads of the students, and Harry heard a familiar voice: "Firs' years! Firs' years over here! All right there, Harry, Alex?"**

"That was kind of embarrassing." said Harry.

Alex smiled at Hagrid. "I thought it was sweet Hagrid."

**Hagrid's big hairy face ****beamed over the sea of heads.**

"**C'mon, follow me-any more firs' years? Mind yer step, now! Firs' years follow me!"**

**Slipping and stumbling, they followed Hagrid down what seemed to be a steep, narrow path. It was so dark on either side of them that Harry thought there must be thick trees there.**

**Nobody spoke much. Neville, the boy who kept losing his toad, sniffed once or twice.**

"Bloody toad."

"**Yeh'll get yer firs' sight o' Hogwarts in a sec," Hagrid called over his shoulder, "jus' round this bend here."**

**There was a loud "Oooooh!"**

**The narrow path had opened suddenly onto the edge of a great black lake. Perched atop a high mountain on the other side, its windows sparkling in the starry sky, was a vast castle with many turrets and towers.**

"**No more'n four to a boat!" Hagrid called, pointing to a fleet of little boats sitting in the water by the shore.**

**Harry, Ron and Alex were followed into their boat by Hermione much to Alex's dismay.**

"I'm sorry!"

"Alex," yelled Hermione. "Stop apologizing!"

"Sorry." Alex mumbled.

"Alex..."

"Sor-"

Fred quickly covered Alex's mouth with his hand before Hermione could reprimand her again.

"**Everyone in?" shouted Hagrid, who had a boat to himself.**

"**Right then-FORWARD!"**

**And the fleet of little boats moved off all at once, gliding across the lake, which was as smooth as glass. Everyone was silent, staring up at the great castle overhead.**

**It towered over them as they sailed nearer and nearer to the cliff on which it stood.**

"**Heads down!" yelled Hagrid ****as the first boats reached the cliff; they all bent their heads and the little boats carried them through a curtain of ivy that hid a wide opening in the cliff face.**

**They were carried along a dark tunnel, which seemed to be taking them right underneath the castle, until they reached a kind of underground harbour, where they clambered out onto rocks and pebbles.**

"**Oy, you there! Is this your toad?" said Hagrid, who was checking the boats as people climbed out of them.**

"**Trevor!" cried Neville blissfully, holding out his hands.**

"Blissfully wouldn't be the right term." said Neville.

**Then they clambered up a passageway in the rocks after Hagrid's lamp, coming out at last onto smooth, damp grass right in the shadow of the castle.**

**They walked up a flight of stone steps and crowded around the huge, oak front door.**

"**Everyone here? You there, still got yer toad?"**

"Can't believe I didn't lose him after that."

**Hagrid raised a gigantic fist and knocked three times on the castle door.**

"And that's the end of the chapter" said Hermione. "Who's next?"

"I'll read!" called George. Fred gaped at him.

"George Weasley, prankster extraordinaire, willingly reading a book? The world must be ending!"

"Shut up Fred." said George as the book was summoned into his hands.

"Besides," said Alex, "You're reading the next chapter."

"No." Fred said firmly.

Alex pouted at him. "Please..."

Fred had to look away. "No."

Alex slowly leaned up and Fred shivered as he felt her breath on his neck. "Please..." she whispered.

"N-no."

Alex placed a soft, lingering kiss on his jaw, and Fred bit his lip to keep himself from moaning out loud.

"Please Fred... for me?"

Fred drew a shaky breath. "F-fine."

Alex grinned and resumed her place. "Thank you."

Lee shook his head. "Alex Potter, getting Fred Weasley to submit? You've just made history."

Many others who knew of the prankster's stubborn behavior were astonished, but mostly Slytherins. The Potters were like them in many aspects than they had realized. Both were sly and cunning, and many were still curious about the green and white sparks from Alex Potter's wand.

* * *

**Hope you guys liked this chapter and please review!**

**~Cassandra**


	7. The Sorting

**And the one everyone's been waiting for, the sorting! Considering the people Alex is sitting with, you guys already know what house she's in, yeah? XD**

**Also, sorry I haven't updated in so long. Busy with school and all, you know? So on with the story!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

**"The Sorting Hat." **George read.

But just as he said this, the doors of the Great Hall swung open. Remus Lupin, Nymphadora Tonks, Molly and Arthur Weasley, and Sirius Black entered.

At the last one, nearly everybody screamed.

"Run!"

"It's Sirius Black!"

The Ministry officials and some students and teachers had their wands at the ready, but the Potters quickly shielded Sirius from them, brandishing their own wands.

"Don't hurt him!" cried Harry.

"He's innocent!" Alex added.

Many students and teachers were confused by this. The Potters were protecting their parents' murderer?

"Harry, Alex.." Sirius started.

"Nonsense!" said Fudge. "Black's clearly confounded them!"

"OI!" Alex growled. "Don't talk about our godfather that way!"

Many students gasped, while Harry has to suppress a groan. How he wished his sister would think about what she was saying before it came out of her mouth.

"Ms. Potter," Fudge began. "This man may be your godfather, but he's-"

"Innocent!" Alex cut him off. "He was framed!"

"And what do you have to prove his innocence, Ms. Potter?" Umbridge gave a sickeningly sweet smile.

"The books." Harry spoke, and everyone looked at him.

"If they show everything we've done in the past, then surely it would explain how Sirius was framed." he stated confidently.

"You sound so sure of yourself, Mr. Potter." Fudge glared, but Harry stood his ground.

"I am."

"Very well." Fudge complied begrudgingly. "But if we prove that he is guilty, Sirius Black goes straight to Azkaban."

"Deal." the twins chorused.

Everyone had finally settled down, the guests seating themselves in their the Gryffindor table, Sirius sitting between the twins, who were glaring at anyone who looked at them weirdly.

"You two don't have to do this, you know." said Sirius.

"Yes we do." Alex turned to him with a firm stare.

Harry nodded in agreement. "You're family Sirius."

Sirius smiled slightly. He was reminded so much of Lily and James.

"Please continue, Mr. Weasley." said Dumbledore, and George cleared his throat before he read.

**The door swung open at once. A tall, black-haired witch in emerald-green robes stood there. She had a very stern face and the twin's first thought was that this was not someone to cross.**

"Then, why do you do it?" McGonagall sighed

"Because if we didn't-"

"-the whole school would be dead-"

"-or petrified-"

"-or cowering in fear-"

"-from some psychotic wizard-"

"-everyday for the rest of their lives." the Potter twins finished, making Fred and George huff.

"Oi, would you two-"

"quit doing that?"

"**The firs' years, Professor McGonagall," said Hagrid.**

"**Thank you, Hagrid. I will take them from here."**

**She pulled the door wide. The entrance hall was so big you could have fit the whole of the Dursleys' house in it. The stone walls were lit with flaming torches like the ones at Gringotts, the ceiling was too high to make out, and a magnificent marble staircase facing them led to the upper floors.**

"Your descriptions are incredible, Harry." said Hermione.

**They followed Professor McGonagall across the flagged stone floor. The twins could hear the drone of hundreds of voices from a doorway to the right — the rest of the school must already be here — but Professor McGonagall showed the first years into a small, empty chamber off the hall. They crowded in, standing rather closer together than they would usually have done, peering about nervously.**

"**Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room.**

"**The four houses are called Gryffindor, Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Slytherin. Each house has its own noble history and each has produced outstanding witches and wizards. While you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn your house points, while any rule breaking will lose house points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the house cup, a great honour. ****I hope each of you will be a credit to whichever house becomes yours.**

"**The Sorting Ceremony will take place in a few minutes in front of the rest of the school. I suggest you all smarten yourselves up as much as you can while you are waiting."**

**Her eyes lingered for a moment on Neville's cloak,**

"How on earth did she see that?"

"I have my ways, Mr. Finnigan."

**which was fastened under his left ear, and on Ron's smudged nose.**

Ron glared at the twins in turn. "Seriously?"

**Harry nervously tried to flatten his hair.**

Alex snorted. "A lost cause, dear brother."

"**I shall return when we are ready for you," said Professor McGonagall. "Please wait quietly."**

**She left the chamber. The twins swallowed.**

"**How exactly do they sort us into houses?" Harry asked Ron.**

"**Some sort of test, I think. Fred said it hurts a lot, but I think he was joking."**

People laughed at this, even some of the Slytherins smirked.

**Harry and Alex's hearts gave a horrible jolt. A test? In front of the whole school? But they didn't know any magic yet —what on earth would they have to do? They hadn't expected something like this the moment they arrived. They looked around anxiously and saw that everyone else looked terrified, too. No one was talking much except Hermione Granger, who was whispering very fast about all the spells she'd learned and wondering which one she'd need.**

"That didn't help, though." Parvarti sighed.

**Harry tried hard not to listen to her. He'd never been more nervous, never, not even when he'd had to take a school report home to the Dursleys saying that he'd somehow turned his teacher's wig blue. ****He kept his eyes fixed on the door. Any second now, Professor McGonagall would come back and lead him to his doom.**

"You are SUCH a pessimist!"

**Then something happened that made him jump about a foot in the air — several people behind him screamed.**

People sat up a little straighter.

"**What the —?"**

**He gasped. So did the people around him. About twenty ghosts had just streamed through the back wall.**

People relaxed.

**Pearly-white and slightly transparent, they glided across the room talking to one another and hardly glancing at the first years. They seemed to be arguing. What looked like a fat little monk was saying: "Forgive and forget, I say, we ought to give him a second chance —"**

"They do that every year." Professor Sinistra chuckled.

"**My dear Friar, haven't we given Peeves all the chances he deserves?**

**He gives us all a bad name and you know, he's not really even a ghost — I say, what are you all doing here?"**

**A ghost wearing a ruff and tights had suddenly noticed the first years.**

**Nobody answered.**

"**New students!" said the Fat Friar, smiling around at them. "About to be Sorted, I suppose?"**

**A few people nodded mutely.**

"**Hope to see you in Hufflepuff!" said the Friar. "My old house, you know."**

"**Move along now," said a sharp voice. "The Sorting Ceremony's about to start."**

**Professor McGonagall had returned. One by one, the ghosts floated away through the opposite wall.**

"**Now, form a line," Professor McGonagall told the first years, "and follow me."**

**Feeling oddly as though his legs had turned to lead, Harry got into line behind a boy with sandy hair, with Alex behind him, and Ron behind her, and they walked out of the chamber, back across the hall, and through a pair of double doors into the Great Hall.**

**Harry had never even imagined such a strange and splendid place. It was lit by thousands and thousands of candles that were floating in midair over four long tables, where the rest of the students were sitting. These tables were laid with glittering golden plates and goblets.**

"It's amazing." Astoria Greengrass breathed.

**At the top of the hall was another long table where the teachers were sitting. Professor McGonagall led the first years up here, so that they came to a halt in a line facing the other students, with the teachers behind them. The hundreds of faces staring at them looked like pale lanterns in the flickering candlelight. Dotted here and there among the students, the ghosts shone misty silver.**

**Mainly to avoid all the staring eyes, Harry looked upward and saw a velvety black ceiling dotted with stars. He heard Hermione whisper, "Its bewitched to look like the sky outside. I read about it in **_**Hogwarts, A History**_**."**

**Alex grumbled under her breath.**

"I will get you to read it." Hermione huffed.

Alex shrugged. "I've already read it. It's actually quite interesting."

Ron and Harry gaped at her, along with Fred and George.

"No Alex, I can't lose you to the dark side!" cried Fred as he gripped Alex by the shoulders and shook her.

"Fred, quit it!"

Sirius chuckled again.

**It was hard to believe there was a ceiling there at all, and that the Great Hall didn't simply open on to the heavens.**

**Harry quickly looked down again as Professor McGonagall silently placed a four-legged stool in front of the first years. On top of the stool she put a pointed wizard's hat. This hat was patched and frayed and extremely dirty. Aunt Petunia wouldn't have let it in the house.**

"That's not a bad idea." George said thoughtfully.

"No Weasley, you are not bringing the sorting hat to Privet Drive."

George blinked. "I wasn't planning on it, Professor."

_**Maybe they had to try and get a rabbit out of it**_**, Harry thought wildly, that seemed the sort of thing —**

"Muggle trick."

**noticing that everyone in the hall was now staring at the hat, he stared at it, too. For a few seconds, there was complete silence. Then the hat twitched. A rip near the brim opened wide like a mouth — and the hat began to sing:**

"Sing it Weasley!" said Theodore.

"NO!" Fred, Ron, Ginny, Percy, Harry, Alex, Hermione, Sirius, Tonks, Remus, and Lee immediately yelled.

George pouted. "I can't be that awful."

"Hate to break it to you mate, but you sound like a dying hippogriff." Lee said sheepishly.

"Let Ginny do it." Alex said at once.

Giving a brief glare at her friend, Ginny took the book from George and sang.

"_**Oh, you may not think I'm pretty,**_  
_**But don't judge on what you see,**_  
_**I'll eat myself if you can find**_  
_**A smarter hat than me.**_  
Yo_**u can keep your bowlers black,**_  
_**Your top hats sleek and tall,**_  
_**For I'm the Hogwarts Sorting Hat**_  
_**And I can cap them all.**_  
_**There's nothing hidden in your head**_  
_**The Sorting Hat can't see,**_  
_**So try me on and I will tell you**_  
_**Where you ought to be.**_  
_**You might belong in Gryffindor,**_  
_**Where dwell the brave at heart,**_  
_**Their daring, nerve, and chivalry**_  
_**Set Gryffindors apart;**_  
_**You might belong in Hufflepuff,**_  
_**Where they are just and loyal,**_  
_**Those patient Hufflepuffs are true**_  
_**And unafraid of toil;**_  
_**Or yet in wise old Ravenclaw,**_  
_**if you've a ready mind,**_  
_**Where those of wit and learning,**_  
_**Will always find their kind;**_  
_**Or perhaps in Slytherin**_  
_**You'll make your real friends,**_  
_**Those cunning folk use any means**_  
_**To achieve their ends.**_  
_**So put me on! Don't be afraid!**_  
_**And don't get in a flap!**_  
_**You're in safe hands (though I have none)**_  
_**For I'm a Thinking Cap!"**_

Applause rang through the hall.

**The whole hall burst into applause as the hat finished its song. It bowed to each of the four tables and then became quite still again.**

"**So we've just got to try on the hat!" Ron whispered to the twins. "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll."**

The quartet shared another look. This time, Fred, George and Sirius caught it.

"What was that look for?" asked Sirius.

"What look?" Alex asked innocently.

"That look."

The quartet did their best to look confused. In the end, Sirius gave up and sighed.

"Nevermind."

**Harry smiled weakly, whilst Alex didn't smile. Yes, trying on the hat was a lot better than having to do a spell, but they did wish they could have tried it on without everyone watching. The hat seemed to be asking rather a lot; neither twin felt brave or quick-witted or any of it at the moment. If only the hat had mentioned a house for people who felt a bit queasy, that would have been the one for him.**

"I believe that would be for everyone." said Professor Vector.

**Professor McGonagall now stepped forward holding a long roll of parchment.**

"**When I call your name, you will put on the hat and sit on the stool to be sorted," she said. "Abbott, Hannah!"**

**A pink-faced girl with blonde pigtails stumbled out of line, put on the hat, which fell right down over her eyes, and sat down. A moments pause —**

"**HUFFLEPUFF!" ****shouted the hat.**

**The table on the right cheered and clapped as Hannah went to sit down at the Hufflepuff table. Harry saw the ghost of the Fat Friar waving merrily at her.**

"**Bones, Susan!"**

"**HUFFLEPUFF!" ****shouted the hat again, and Susan scuttled off to sit next to Hannah.**

"**Boot, Terry!"**

"**RAVENCLAW!"**

**The table second from the left clapped this time; several Ravenclaws stood up to shake hands with Terry as he joined them.**

"**Brocklehurst, Mandy" went to Ravenclaw ****too, but "Brown, Lavender" became the first new Gryffindor, ****and the table on the far left exploded with cheers; Harry could see Ron's twin brothers catcalling.**

"**Bulstrode, Millicent" then became a Slytherin.**

**Perhaps it was Harry's imagination, after all he'd heard about Slytherin, but he thought they looked like an unpleasant lot.**

"Sorry!"

**He was starting to feel definitely sick now. He remembered being picked for teams during gym at his old school. He and Alex had always been last to be chosen, not because they were no good, but because no one wanted Dudley to think they liked them.**

"**Finch-Fletchley, Justin!"**

"**HUFFLEPUFF!"**

**Sometimes, Harry noticed, the hat shouted out the house at once, but at others it took a little while to decide. "Finnigan, Seamus," the sandy-haired boy next to Harry in the line, sat on the stool for almost a whole minute before the hat declared him a Gryffindor.**

"**Granger, Hermione!"**

**Hermione almost ran to the stool and jammed the hat eagerly on her head.**

"To flipping observant." Hermione joked.

"**GRYFFINDOR!" ****shouted the hat.**

**"Tough luck, mate." Alex said to Ron. Ron groaned.**

"OI!" Hermione laughed.

**A horrible thought struck Harry, as horrible thoughts always do when you're very nervous. What if he wasn't chosen at all? What if he just sat there with the hat over his eyes for ages, until Professor McGonagall jerked it off his head and said there had obviously been a mistake and he'd better get back on the train?**

**When Neville Longbottom, the boy who kept losing his toad, was called, he fell over on his way to the stool. The hat took a long time to decide with Neville. When it finally shouted, "GRYFFINDOR,"**

**Neville ran off still wearing it, and had to jog back amid gales of laughter to give it to "MacDougal, Morag."**

**Malfoy swaggered forward when his name was called and got his wish at once: the hat had barely touched his head when it screamed, "SLYTHERIN!"**

**Malfoy went to join his friends Crabbe and Goyle, looking pleased with himself.**

**There weren't many people left now. "Moon"…, "Nott"…, "Parkinson"…, then a pair of twin girls, "Patil" and "Patil"…, then "Perks, Sally-Anne"…,**

People cheered as each name was called throughout the replay of the sorting, even a few Slytherins.

**and then, at last —**

"**Potter, Alexis!"**

Finally the noise stopped and people leaned forward in their seats in anticipation.

**As Alex stepped forward, whispers suddenly broke out like little hissing fires all over the hall.**

"_**Potter**_**, did she say?"**

"_**The **_**Alexis Potter?"**

**"Isn't Harry Potter here as well?"**

**The last thing Alex saw before the hat dropped over his eyes was the hall full of people craning to get a good look at him and her brother's reassuring eyes.**

"Awww!" Ginny cooed.

**Next second she was looking at the black inside of the hat. She waited.**

"**Hmm," said a small voice in her ear. "Difficult. Interesting mind you have, though. Very cunning for an eleven year old. Protective over your brother, but there is something different...something darker beneath... So shall it be Slytherin or Gryffindor?"**

People gaped at Alex who looked down in shame. She could have placed in Slytherin, because the hat felt something DARK about her. Sirius placed an arm around his goddaughters shoulder.

"I'm not dark." he heard her whisper.

"I know pup." comforted Sirius.

Snape was frozen in his seat. Alex could have been in his house. And what did the hat mean by something dark about her?

**Alex gripped the edges of the stool and thought, **_**Not Slytherin, please. Anything but Slytherin**_**.**

"**Not Slytherin, eh?" said the small voice. "Are you sure? You could be great, you know, it's all here in your head, and Slytherin will help you on the way to greatness, no doubt about that — ****"**

**Alex continued to chant 'Not Slytherin' in her head over and over. 'I'm not dark. I'll never turn dark.'**

**"We shall see then — better be GRYFFINDOR!"**

**Alex heard the hat shout the last word to the whole hall and sighed in relief. She took off the hat and walked shakily toward the Gryffindor table. She was so relieved to have been chosen and not put in Slytherin, she hardly noticed that she was getting the loudest cheer so far. Percy the Prefect got up and shook her hand vigorously, while the Weasley twins yelled, "We got Potter! We got Potter!"**

They repeated this to laughter and cheers.

**"Potter, Harry!"**

**Alex watched her brother eagerly, but hoped that he would be placed with her.**

**Harry shakily sat on the stool, and the hat's voice whispered. "****Very difficult. Plenty of courage, I see, and protective over your sister as well. Not a bad mind either. There's talent, A my goodness, yes — and a nice thirst to prove yourself, now that's interesting…So where shall I put you?**

Again, people were astounded. Harry could have been in any house?

**Harry, like Alex, gripped the edge of the stool and thought,** _**Not Slytherin. Not Slytherin.**_

**Luckily the hat seemed to consider his decision. "Not Slytherin? very well..."**

**"GRYFFINDOR!" the hat yelled and Harry eagerly removed the hat and hopped off the stool.**

**Harry sat down opposite the ghost in the ruff he'd seen earlier, on Alex's left. The ghost patted his arm, giving Harry the sudden, horrible feeling he'd just plunged it into a bucket of ice-cold water.**

People shivered.

**But the feeling immediately vanished when Alex engulfed him in a hug.**

**"We did it!" she whispered excitedly. "We're in the same house!"**

**Harry returned the hug with a chuckle, before they both let go and turned their attention back to the sorting.**

**He and Alex could see the High Table properly now. At the end nearest him sat Hagrid, who caught his eye and gave him the thumbs up. Harry grinned back. And there, in the centre of the High Table, in a large gold chair, sat Albus Dumbledore.**

More cheers. The looks of disgust that was on Fudge's and Umbrige's faces became more pronounced.

**Harry recognized him at once from the card they'd gotten out of the Chocolate Frog on the train. Dumbledore's silver hair was the only thing in the whole hall that shone as brightly as the ghosts.**

People laughed. It was true.

**Harry spotted Professor Quirrell, too, the nervous young man from the Leaky Cauldron. He was looking very peculiar in a large purple turban.**

Again, the quartet shared a look, and Hermione snorted out loud.

**And now there were only three people left to be sorted. "Thomas, Dean," a Black boy even taller than Ron, joined Harry at the Gryffindor table.**

The cheers erupted once more.

**"Turpin, Lisa," became a Ravenclaw ****and then it was Ron's turn. He was pale green by now. The twins crossed their fingers under the table and a second later the hat had shouted, "GRYFFINDOR!"**

Fred, George, and Ginny whooped, and Percy smiled a tad.

**The twins clapped loudly with the rest as Ron collapsed into the chair next to Harry.**

"**Well done, Ron, excellent," said Percy Weasley pompously across Harry as "Zabini, Blaise," was made a Slytherin.**

**Professor McGonagall rolled up her scroll and took the Sorting Hat away.**

**Harry looked down at his empty gold plate. He had only just realized how hungry he was. The pumpkin pasties seemed ages ago.**

"They where." Ron groaned from his seat.

**Albus Dumbledore had gotten to his feet. He was beaming at the students, his arms opened wide, as if nothing could have pleased him more than to see them all there.**

"**Welcome," he said. "Welcome to a new year at Hogwarts! Before we begin our banquet, I would like to say a few words. And here they are: Nitwit! Blubber! Oddment! Tweak! Thank you!"**

Many in the Hall laughed.

"We've corrupted you." Sirius chuckled, and Molly reached over the table and hit him upside the head.

**He sat back down. Everybody clapped and cheered. Harry didn't know whether to laugh or not, while Alex settled for a small smile.**

"**Is he — a bit mad?" Harry asked Percy uncertainly.**

"Harry!" Molly admonished.

"Of course he is Harry." Remus grinned "That's what makes him such an entertaining man."

Dumbledore smiled. "Thank you Remus."

"**Mad?" said Percy airily. "He's a genius! Best wizard in the world! But he is a bit mad, yes. Potatoes, Harry?"**

**Harry's mouth fell open. The dishes in front of him were now piled with food. He had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, fries, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup, and, for some strange reason, peppermint humbugs.**

**The Dursleys had never exactly starved the twins, but they'd never been allowed to eat as much as they liked.**

Both Molly and Madam Pomfrey eyes the twins again. They were too scrawny for their age.

**Dudley had always taken anything that Harry or Alex really wanted, even if it made him sick. Harry piled his plate with a bit of everything except the peppermints and began to eat.**

**It was all delicious.**

**Alex got a bit of everything as well, but ate considerable was a habit she had grown up with when she had lived with the Dursleys, and even if she was away, it seemed the restraint was still there.**

**Harry frowned.**

And so did most of the people in the Hall.

**"Don't you think you should eat a bit more, Alex?" he told her, but Alex shook her head.**

**"It's okay. This is enough to fill me up already."**

"We need to fatten you up more, dear." Molly huffed.

**"That does look good," said the ghost in the ruff sadly, watching Harry cut up his steak.**

"**Can't you —?"**

"So caring." Molly coed.

"**I haven't eaten for nearly five hundred years," said the ghost. "I don't need to, of course, but one does miss it. I don't think I've introduced myself? Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington at your service. Resident ghost of Gryffindor Tower."**

"**I know who you are!" said Ron suddenly. "My brothers told me about you — you're Nearly Headless Nick!"**

"**I would **_**prefer **_**you to call me Sir Nicholas de Mimsy —" the ghost began stiffly, but sandy-haired Seamus Finnigan interrupted.**

"_**Nearly **_**Headless? How can you be **_**nearly **_**headless?"**

**Sir Nicholas looked extremely miffed, as if their little chat wasn't going at all the way he wanted.**

"Oh it is actually" Arthur chuckled.

"He told James and I that he always did that, just so people would ask." Sirius snorted.

"**Like **_**this**_**," he said irritably. He seized his left ear and pulled. His whole head swung off his neck and fell onto his shoulder as if it was on a hinge. Someone had obviously tried to behead him, but not done it properly. Looking pleased at the stunned looks on their faces.**

**Nearly Headless Nick flipped his head back onto his neck, coughed, and said, "So — new Gryffindors! I hope you're going to help us win the house championship this year? Gryffindors have never gone so long without winning. Slytherins have got the cup six years in a row!**

Slytherin cheered, but not mockingly as they had used to.

**The Bloody Baron's becoming almost unbearable — he's the Slytherin ghost."**

**Harry looked over at the Slytherin table and saw a horrible ghost sitting there, with blank staring eyes, a gaunt face, and robes stained with silver blood. He was right next to Malfoy who, Harry was pleased to see, didn't look too pleased with the seating arrangements.**

"Gee, thanks a bunch Potter." piped Malfoy sarcastically.

"**How did he get covered in blood?" asked Seamus with great interest.**

"**I've never asked," said Nearly Headless Nick delicately.**

**When everyone had eaten as much as they could, the remains of the food faded from the plates, leaving them sparkling clean as before. A moment later the desserts appeared. Blocks of ice cream in every flavour you could think of, bowls of cherries, apple pies, treacle tarts, chocolate éclairs and jam doughnuts, trifle, strawberries, Jell-O, rice pudding…**

**Alex was quick in helping herself to some cherries.**

George paused his reading and both his eyebrows shot up.

Fred gulped and glanced at Alex who grinned up at him innocently.

The rest watched the scene with amusement.

"I don't suppose you know how to tie a knot with that Alex?" asked George, clearly amused at his twin's reaction.

Alex grinned wider. "Maybe."

**As Harry helped himself to a treacle tart,**

"Your mum's favourite." Remus and Sirius shook their heads.

**the talk turned to their families.**

"**I'm half-and-half," said Seamus. "Me dad's a Muggle. Mum didn't tell him she was a witch 'til after they were married. Bit of a nasty shock for him." The others laughed.**

"That's not funny!" Harry, Alex and Snape snapped at once.

"What if he'd been like the Dursleys?" Harry asked him seriously.

Alex scowled. "He would have taken it out on you."

Seamus paled at the thought, and the rest looked ashamed. No one had ever thought of that.

"**What about you, Neville?" said Ron.**

"**Well, my gran brought me up and she's a witch," said Neville, "but the family thought I was all-Muggle for ages.**

"Squib."

**My Great Uncle Algie kept trying to catch me off my guard and force some magic out of me he pushed me off the end of Blackpool pier once, I nearly drowned**

"WHAT?"

**but nothing happened until I was eight. Great Uncle Algie came round for dinner, and he was hanging me out of an upstairs window by the ankles when my Great Auntie Enid offered him a meringue and he accidentally let go.**

"He shouldn't have been hanging you out the window in the first place."

"Accidentally my arse."

**But I bounced all the way down the garden and into the road. They were all really pleased, Gran was crying, she was so happy.**

"She was happy her grandson could have died?" Ginny asked incredulously.

**And you should have seen their faces when I got in here they thought I might not be magic enough to come, you see. Great Uncle Algie was so pleased he bought me my toad."**

"Yeah, cause that's an excellent gift." Theodore drawled sarcastically.

**On Harry's other side, Percy Weasley and Hermione were talking about lessons**

"There's the Hermione we know and love."

("**I **_**do **_**hope they start right away, there's so much to learn, I'm particularly interested in Transfiguration, you know, turning something into something else, of course, it's supposed to be very difficult —";**

"Unless you have a natural talent for it." McGonagall commented, remembering James.

"**You'll be starting small, just matches into needles and that sort of thing — ").**

**Harry, who was starting to feel warm and sleepy, looked up at the High Table again. Hagrid was drinking deeply from his goblet. Professor McGonagall was talking to Professor Dumbledore. Professor Quirrell, in his absurd turban, was talking to a teacher with greasy black hair, a hooked nose, and sallow skin.**

Remus and Sirius immediately burst into peals of laughter, and Snape scowled.

**It happened very suddenly. The hook-nosed teacher looked past Quirrell's turban straight into Harry's eyes — and a sharp, hot pain shot across the scar on Harry's forehead. And Alex, who had a shared connection with her twin, felt it as well.**

"**Ouch!" Harry clapped a hand to his head as Alex sucked in a breath.**

"**What is it?" asked Percy.**

"**N-nothing."**

"Lies!" The Weasley twins called in an impression of Umbridge.

**The pain had gone as quickly as it had come. Harder to shake off was the feeling Harry had gotten from the teacher's look — a feeling that he didn't like Harry at all.**

**"What happened?" Alex whispered to him.**

**"I don't know." said Harry. "Do you see that man next to Professor Quirrel?"**

**Alex turned to where Harry was looking at. "You mean the one that looks like he hasn't heard of a shower before?"**

"Sorry!" Alex squeaked as other people snickered.

Snape shook his head. "That cheek will get you in trouble someday Potter."

_'I think it already has._' Alex thought disdainfully with a glare in Umbridge's direction.

**Harry chuckled lightly at her description.**

**"Yes, that one. When he looked at me, my scar started hurting." he explained, and Alex narrowed her eyes at the man in half-suspicion, half-anger.**

"**Who's that teacher talking to Professor Quirrell?" she asked Percy.**

"**Oh, you know Quirrell already, do you? No wonder he's looking so nervous, that's Professor Snape. He teaches Potions, but he doesn't want to — everyone knows he's after Quirrell's job. Knows an awful lot about the Dark Arts, Snape."**

**Harry watched Snape for a while, but Snape didn't look at him again.**

**At last, the desserts too disappeared, and Professor Dumbledore got to his feet again.**

**The hall fell silent.**

"**Ahem — just a few more words now that we are all fed and watered. I have a few start-of-term notices to give you. First years should note that the forest on the grounds is forbidden to all pupils. And a few of our older students would do well to remember that as well."**

**Dumbledore's twinkling eyes flashed in the direction of the Weasley twins.**

"That used to be us." Remus smiled.

"You were a troublemaker Professor?" Parvarti asked curiously.

"Troublemaker? We were the best pranksters this school has ever seen!" Sirius exclaimed, earning laughs from the quartet, much to the confusion of others.

"**I have also been asked by Mr. Filch, the caretaker, to remind you all that no magic should be used between classes in the corridors.**

People snorted.

"**Quidditch trials will be held in the second week of the term. Anyone interested in playing for their house teams should contact Madam Hooch.**

"Or catch a rememberall." Angelina grinned.

"And beat Malfoy off his broom." Katie added.

"**And finally, I must tell you that this year, the third-floor corridor on the right-hand side is out of bounds to everyone who does not wish to die a very painful death."**

**Harry and Alex laughed, but they were one of the few who did.**

"**He's not serious?" Harry muttered to Percy.**

"**Must be," said Percy, frowning at Dumbledore. "It's odd, because he usually gives us a reason why we're not allowed to go somewhere — the forest's full of dangerous beasts, everyone knows that. I do think he might have told us prefects, at least."**

"Yes I was a prat I know." Percy sighed.

"**And now, before we go to bed, let us sing the school song!" cried Dumbledore. Harry noticed that the other teachers' smiles had become rather fixed.**

All teacher face palmed. "Sorry." Harry smiled as Dumbledore looked at them.

**Dumbledore gave his wand a little flick, as if he was trying to get a fly off the end, and a long golden ribbon flew out of it, which rose high above the tables and twisted itself, snakelike, into words.**

"**Everyone pick their favourite tune," said Dumbledore, "and off we go!"**

**And the school bellowed:**

"_**Hogwarts, Hogwarts, Hoggy Warty Hogwarts,**_  
_**Teach us something please,  
Whether we be old and bald  
Or young with scabby knees,  
Our heads could do with filling  
With some interesting stuff,  
For now they're bare and full of air,  
Dead flies and bits of fluff,  
So teach us things worth knowing,  
**__**Bring back what we've forgot,  
Just do your best, we'll do the rest,  
And learn until our brains all rot."**_

**Everybody finished the song at different times. At last, only the Weasley twins were left singing along to a very slow funeral march.**

**Dumbledore conducted their last few lines with his wand and when they had finished, he was one of those who clapped loudest.**

People clapped now very happy.

"**Ah, music," he said, wiping his eyes. "A magic beyond all we do here! And now, bedtime. Off you trot!"**

"What are we? horses?" Seamus asked and everyone laughed.

**The Gryffindor first years followed Percy through the chattering crowds, out of the Great Hall, and up the marble staircase. Harry's legs were like lead again, but only because he was so tired and full of food. He was too sleepy even to be surprised that the people in the portraits along the corridors whispered and pointed as they passed, or that twice Percy led them through doorways hidden behind sliding panels and hanging tapestries.**

"And that's why everyone gets lost." Pomona mumbled.

**They climbed more staircases, yawning and dragging their feet, and Harry was just wondering how much farther they had to go when they came to a sudden halt.**

**A bundle of walking sticks was floating in midair ahead of them, and as Percy took a step toward them they started throwing themselves at him.**

"**Peeves," Percy whispered to the first years. "A poltergeist." He raised his voice, "Peeves — ****show yourself."**

**A loud, rude sound, like the air being let out of a balloon, answered.**

"**Do you want me to go to the Bloody Baron?"**

"Don't pull the Baron card that early or he won't care." Remus sighed.

**There was a pop, and a little man with wicked, dark eyes and a wide mouth appeared, floating cross-legged in the air, clutching the walking sticks.**

"**Oooooooh!" he said, with an evil cackle. "Ickle Firsties! What fun!"**

**He swooped suddenly at them. They all ducked.**

"**Go away, Peeves, or the Baron'll hear about this, I mean it!" barked Percy.**

**Peeves stuck out his tongue and vanished, dropping the walking sticks on Neville's head. They heard him zooming away, rattling coats of armour as he passed.**

"**You want to watch out for Peeves," said Percy, as they set off again. "The Bloody Baron's the only one who can control him, he won't even listen to us prefects. Here we are."**

**At the very end of the corridor hung a portrait of a very fat woman in a pink silk dress.**

"**Password?" she said.**

"**Caput Draconis," said Percy, and the portrait swung forward to reveal a round hole in the wall. They all scrambled through it — Neville needed a leg up — and found themselves in the Gryffindor common room, a cozy, round room full of squashy armchairs.**

**Percy directed the girls through one door to their dormitory and the boys through another. At the top of a spiral staircase — they were obviously in one of the towers — they found their beds at last: five four-posters hung with deep red, velvet curtains.**

Everyone else, especially the Slytherins, looked curious.

"Sounds comfy." said Luna.

**Their trunks had already been brought up. Too tired to talk much, they pulled on their pyjamas and fell into bed.**

"**Great food, isn't it?" Ron muttered to Harry through the hangings. "Get **_**off**_**, Scabbers! He's chewing my sheets."**

**Harry was going to ask Ron if he'd had any of the treacle tart, but he fell asleep almost at once.**

**Perhaps Harry had eaten a bit too much, because he had a very strange dream. He was wearing Professor Quirrell's turban, which kept talking to him, telling him he and his sister must transfer to Slytherin at once, because it was their destiny. Harry told the turban they didn't want to be in Slytherin; it got heavier and heavier; he tried to pull it off but it tightened painfully — and there was Malfoy, laughing at him as he struggled with it — then Malfoy turned into the hook-nosed teacher, Snape, whose laugh became high and cold — there was a burst of green light and Harry woke, sweating and shaking.**

"Unfortunately that's common." said Harry's roommates as one.

**_It was just a dream._ Harry heard Alex's voice in his head. He assumed he must just be really tired and had started hearing things._Everything's fine. It was only a dream._**

**Harry rolled over and fell asleep again, and when he woke next day, he didn't remember thee dream at all.**

"That's the end of this chapter." George announced.

"That twin link has saved our lives." Ron shook his head.

"Yeah, but it gave me a headache when Alex decided to take Arithmancy last year." Harry snorted.

"I guess I'm reading next." said Fred, but as soon as he glanced at the title, he groaned. "Oh, I'm regretting this."

* * *

**Hope you guys liked this chapter and please review!**

**~Cassandra**


	8. The Potions Master

**Here's the next chapter you guys have been waiting for. So I'm going to finish up all seven books first, then you guys can just write up if you still want a Slytherin version of the story. Anyways, hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

Fred read the title and sighed," **The Potions Master**."

"Now I see why you regret it." Ginny shook her head.

"**There, look."**

"**Where?"**

"**Next to the tall kid with the red hair."**

"**Wearing the glasses?"**

"**Did you see their faces?"**

"**Did you see their scars?"**

"I can see how that would get annoying," Arthur said.

"You have no idea."

**Whispers followed the twins from the moment they left their dormitories the next day. People lining up outside classrooms stood on tiptoe to get a look at them, or doubled back to pass them in the corridors again, staring.**

**Harry and Alex wished they wouldn't, because they was trying to concentrate on finding their way to classes.**

"Why don't you just ask one of them?" asked Molly.

Ron snorted.

**"Honestly, you'd think people living in a world of magic would have something more interesting to do than stare at a couple of kids." Alex muttered lowly to Harry and Ron.**

**Harry smiled and Ron laughed.**

"Sure, you guys enjoy laughing at my pain."

**There were a hundred and forty-two staircases at Hogwarts**

"You counted?" Hermione said raising her eyebrow.

Harry shrugged. "We didn't mean to. It just sort of stuck."

"If we didn't, we would probably have been lost for at least another week." Alex chuckled.

**: wide, sweeping ones; narrow, rickety ones; some that led somewhere different on a Friday; some with a vanishing step halfway up that you had to remember to jump.**

"I hate those." muttered Neville.

**Then there were doors that wouldn't open unless you asked politely, or tickled them in exactly the right place, and doors that weren't really doors at all, but solid walls just pretending. It was also very hard to remember where anything was, because it all seemed to move around a lot.**

"I'm ashamed," Fred said dramatically, and Alex shoved him playfully.

**The people in the portraits kept going to visit each other, and Harry was sure the coats of armor could walk.**

Hermione nodded. "They could."

**The ghosts didn't help, either. It was always a nasty shock when one of them glided suddenly through a door you were trying to open.**

A lot of people, including Slytherins, muttered their agreements.

**Nearly Headless Nick was always happy to point new Gryffindors in the right direction,**

Molly nodded approvingly.

**but Peeves the Poltergeist was worth two locked doors and a trick staircase if you met him when you were late for class.**

**He would drop wastepaper baskets on your head, pull rugs from under your feet, pelt you with bits of chalk, or sneak up behind you, invisible, grab your nose, and screech, "GOT YOUR CONK!"**

"That's horrible," Molly cried, while Remus and Sirius burst into full-blown laughter.

"He-he still does that?" Sirius gasped through laughs.

McGonagall glared at him. "This would be your and Mr. Potter's doing, I assume?"

"Sirius Black!" Molly shrieked. "You should know better than this!"

"It's actually funny when he's not doing it to you though." George pointed out, earning a glare from his mother.

**Even worse than Peeves, if that was possible, was the caretaker, Argus Filch. Harry, Alex and Ron managed to get on the wrong side of him on their very first morning.**

"Ah, you hear that Remus? The pups following in the Marauder footsteps!" Sirius said proudly, wrapping his arms around the twins' shoulders.

Fred paused his reading and he and George perked up. "You knew the Marauders?" they asked in unison.

Many of the teachers groaned, the quartet plus Sirius and Remus grinned, while everyone else looked confused.

"Knew them? They were the greatest pranksters that ever walked through the halls of Hogwarts!" Sirius announced cockily, to which Alex rolled her eyes at. Remus, Sirius, and Snape were distinctly reminded of Lily whenever James did something stupid.

**Filch found them trying to force their way through a door that unluckily turned out to be the entrance to the out-of-bounds corridor on the third floor.**

"Oh dear," said Molly.

**He wouldn't believe they were lost, was sure they were trying to break into it on purpose, and was threatening to lock them in the dungeons ****when they were rescued by Professor Quirrell, who was passing.**

"Right, just passing," Ron remarked snidely.

**Filch owned a cat called Mrs. Norris, a scrawny, dust-colored creature with bulging, lamp like eyes just like Filch's. She patrolled the corridors alone. Break a rule in front of her, put just one toe out of line, and she'd whisk off for Filch, who'd appear, wheezing, two seconds later.**

**Filch knew the secret passageways of the school better than anyone**

Fred paused his reading as he, George, Sirius, and Remus scoffed indignantly.

**(except perhaps the Weasley twins)**

Fred and George smiled proudly.

**and could pop up as suddenly as any of the ghosts. The students all hated him, and it was the dearest ambition of many to give Mrs. Norris a good kick.**

Alex and Ron smirked.

**And then, once you had managed to find them, there were the classes themselves. There was a lot more to magic, as the twins quickly found out, than waving your wand and saying a few funny words.**

"Well of course there is," Hermione scoffed, and everyone looked at her oddly. She blushed.

**They had to study the night skies through their telescopes every Wednesday at midnight and learn the names of different stars and the movements of the planets. Three times a week they went out to the greenhouses behind the castle to study Herbology, with a dumpy little witch called Professor Sprout, ****where they learned how to take care of all the strange plants and fungi, and found out what they were used for. Easily the most boring class was History of Magic, which was the only one taught by a ghost.**

Everyone nodded except Hermione.

"I know you love school Hermione but you have to admit it is boring," Alex said.

"You're just too lazy to study." Hermione retorted. "The boys are a bad influence on you."

**Professor Binns had been very old indeed when he had fallen asleep in front of the staff room fire and got up next morning to teach, leaving his body behind him. Binns droned on and on while they scribbled down names and dates, and got Emetic the Evil and Uric the Oddball mixed up.**

**Professor Flitwick, the Charms teacher, was a tiny little wizard who had to stand on a pile of books to see over his desk.**

**At the start of their first class he took the roll call, and when he reached Harry and Alex's names he gave an excited squeak and toppled out of sight.**

Everyone chuckled at Professor Flitwick's reaction.

**Professor McGonagall was again different. The twins had been quite right to think she wasn't a teacher to cross.**

"Again, why do you do it?" McGonagall sighed.

Molly glanced at the quartet, Fred and George warily, wondering exactly what they have been doing.

**Strict and clever, she gave them a talking-to the moment they sat down in her first class.**

"**Transfiguration is some of the most complex and dangerous magic you will learn at Hogwarts," she said. "Anyone messing around in my class will leave and not come back. You have been warned."**

**Then she changed her desk into a pig and back again. They were all very impressed and couldn't wait to get started, but soon realized they weren't going to be changing the furniture into animals for a long time.**

**After taking a lot of complicated notes, they were each given a match and started trying to turn it into a needle. By the end of the lesson, only Hermione Granger had made any difference to her match****; Professor McGonagall showed the class how it had gone all silver and pointy and gave Hermione a rare smile.**

**The class everyone had really been looking forward to was Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Quirrell's lessons turned out to be a bit of a joke.**

"How did you ever learn?" Tonks asked.

The kids all smiled and glanced at the Potters.

**His classroom smelled strongly of garlic, which everyone said was to ward off a vampire he'd met in Romania and was afraid would be coming back to get him one of these days. His turban, he told them, had been given to him by an African prince as a thank-you for getting rid of a troublesome zombie, but they weren't sure they believed this story.**

The quartet's looks darkened. They knew exactly what was beneath that turban.

**For one thing, when Seamus Finnigan asked eagerly to hear how Quirrell had fought off the zombie, Quirrell went pink and started talking about the weather; for another, they had noticed that a funny smell hung around the turban,**

Harry shuddered and Alex gulped.

**and the Weasley twins insisted that it was stuffed full of garlic as well, so that Quirrell was protected wherever he went.**

Everyone laughed except the quartet.

**Harry and Alex were very relieved to find out that they weren't miles behind everyone else. Lots of people had come from Muggle families and, like them, hadn't had any idea that they were witches and wizards. There was so much to learn that even people like Ron didn't have much of a head start.**

"Well Ron is a special case," Fred joked.

"FRED!" Molly scolded.

**Friday was an important day for the twins and Ron. They finally managed to find their way down to the Great Hall for breakfast without getting lost once.**

"**What have we got today?" Harry asked Ron as he poured sugar on his porridge.**

"**Double Potions with the Slytherins," said Ron.**

"Just our luck," Harry said.

**"Snape's Head of Slytherin House. They say he always favours them — we'll be able to see if it's true."**

"It is," Harry muttered.

"It doesn't help that he hates you," Ron told Harry. Alice stared at him, deadpanned, and Hermione smacked him upside the head.

"OW! Bloody hell woman!"

"**Wish McGonagall favoured us," said Harry.**

Fred and George laughed," That will never happen."

Sirius and Remus snorted.

**Professor McGonagall was head of Gryffindor House, but it hadn't stopped her from giving them a huge pile of homework the day before.**

**Just then, the mail arrived. Harry had gotten used to this by now, but it had given him a bit of a shock on the first morning, when about a hundred owls had suddenly streamed into the Great Hall during breakfast, circling the tables until they saw their owners, and dropping letters and packages onto their laps.**

**Hedwig hadn't brought Harry anything so far. She sometimes flew in to nibble his ear and have a bit of toast before going off to sleep in the owlery with the other school owls.**

"That's so sweet," Molly cooed.

**Midnight, however, wasn't as gentle. She would peck Alex's cheek, then steal the toast in the girl's hand before flying off to the owlery with Hedwig, leaving Alex to glare after the black owl.**

"She has your personality." Ron laughed.

**This morning, however, she fluttered down between the marmalade and the sugar bowl and dropped a note onto Alex's plate.**

**Alex tore it open at once. It said, in a very untidy scrawl:**

_**Dear Alex and Harry,**_

_**I know you get Friday afternoons off, so would you like to come and have a cup of tea with me around three?**_

_**I want to hear all about your first week. Send us an answer back with Hedwig.**_

_**Hagrid**_

Hagrid smiled.

**Alex borrowed Harry's quill, scribbled **_**Yes, please, see you later **_**on the back of the note, and sent Hedwig off again.**

**It was lucky that the twins had tea with Hagrid to look forward to, because the Potions lesson turned out to be the worst thing that had happened to them so far.**

"Was really that bad?" Sirius asked.

Harry nodded," So far at least."

**At the start-of-term banquet, Harry had gotten the idea that Professor Snape disliked him. By the end of the first Potions lesson, he knew he'd been wrong.**

******Snape didn't dislike Harry —**

"WHAT?" the Weasley children (minus Fred who was reading), Sirius, Remus, and a few other Gryffindors exclaimed.

** he **_**hated **_**him.**

"Phew, everything is right in the world again." Ron sighed in relief.

"Why would he hate you he doesn't even know you?" Molly yelled in outrage.

"James," Remus murmured, and Sirius looked a tad guilty.

Alex caught Snape's eye, and he gave her a curt nod.

**Potions lessons took place down in one of the dungeons. It was colder here than up in the main castle, and would have been quite creepy enough without the pickled animals floating in glass jars all around the walls.**

**Snape, like Flitwick, started the class by taking the roll call, and like Flitwick, he paused at twins' names.**

"**Ah, Yes," he said softly, "Harry and Alexis Potter. Our new — **_**celebrities**_**."**

"Like he wants it you greasy git," Ginny growled.

"GINNY!" Molly scolded.

"Keep reading Fred," Alex said quietly.

**Draco Malfoy and his friends Crabbe and Goyle sniggered behind their hands. Snape finished calling the names and looked up at the class. His eyes were black like Hagrid's, but they had none of Hagrid's warmth.**

"Don't compare that git to Hagrid!" said Ron, and Alex glowered, reaching and knocking him upside the head.

"Don't talk about him like that!" she hissed quietly, but enough for Remus and Sirius to hear, and the two exchanged glances.

**They were cold and empty and made you think of dark tunnels.**

"**You are here to learn the subtle science and exact art of potion making," he began. He spoke in barely more than a whisper, but they caught every word — like Professor McGonagall, Snape had the gift of keeping a class silent without effort.**

"More out of fear than respect, though," said Padma.

"**As there is little foolish wand-waving here, many of you will hardly believe this is magic. I don't expect you will really understand the beauty of the softly simmering cauldron with its shimmering fumes, the delicate power of liquids that creep through human veins, bewitching the mind, ensnaring the senses… I can teach you how to bottle fame, brew glory, even stopper death **— **if you aren't as big a bunch of dunderheads as I usually have to teach."**

"That was actually a good speech, until he called them dunderheads." said Tonks, and Molly nodded in agreement.

**More silence followed this little speech. Harry, Alex and Ron exchanged looks with raised eyebrows. Hermione Granger was on the edge of her seat and looked desperate to start proving that she wasn't a dunderhead.**

Fred paused. "Hermione? Our Hermione?"

"A dunderhead?" George put in.

"Never." they finished.

"**Potter!" said Snape suddenly. "What would I get if I added powdered root of asphodel to an infusion of wormwood?"**

"They wouldn't know that," Remus said.

"Well he's never fair with Harry," Ron said rolling his eyes.

_**Powdered root of what to an infusion of what**_**? Harry glanced at Ron, who looked as stumped as he was; Hermione's hand had shot into the air. Alex opened her mouth to answer, but was cut off by Snape.**

**"Well, Mr. Potter?"**

"He did that on purpose." Lavender scowled.

"**I don't know, sir," said Harry.**

**Snape's lips curled into a sneer.**

"**Tut, tut — fame clearly isn't everything."**

"Never said it was," Ginny said glaring at the book.

"Was that really called for, Professor?" Alex asked Snape from where she sat, but received no reply.

**He ignored Hermione's hand.**

"**Let's try again. Potter, where would you look if I told you to find me a bezoar?"**

"How is he suppose to know these things," Tonks said her hair turning red.

**Hermione stretched her hand as high into the air as it would go without her leaving her seat, but Harry didn't have the faintest idea what a bezoar was. He tried not to look at Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle, who were shaking with laughter. He glanced at Alex, who was trying to mouth the words to him discreetly, but he couldn't read her very well.**

"I thought you had that twin telepathy?" Ron asked.

"We haven't developed it yet." Harry shrugged.

"**I don't know, sir."**

"**Thought you wouldn't open a book before coming, eh, Potter?"**

"How dare you Harry," George said shaking his head.

"Of course you should have memorized the whole thing," Fred scolded.

**Harry forced himself to keep looking straight into those cold eyes. He had looked through his books at the Dursleys', but did Snape expect him to remember everything in **_**One Thousand Magical Herbs and Fungi**_**?**

**Snape was still ignoring Hermione's quivering hand and Alex's glare.**

Many Griffyndors shuddered.

"**What is the difference, Potter, between monkshood and wolfsbane?"**

"At least that one's a first year question." Arthur shook his head.

**At this, Hermione stood up, her hand stretching toward the dungeon ceiling.**

"**I don't know," said Harry quietly.**

**"But I think Hermione knows,_ sir__, _why don't you try her?" Alex suddenly spat. "It would be more beneficial than picking on students who have clearly done _nothing_ wrong to you."**

**At this point, the class and Snape were shocked into silence. Alexis Potter, a Gryffindor, just stood up to one of the nastiest teacher's in Hogwarts. People were glancing between the glaring 11 year old, and Snape in anticipation. But the Professor seemed to be deep in thought.**

Everyone in the Great Hall was silent. Most knew that Alex stood up to Snape, but not all of them knew how it had really happened.

Molly was looking at Alex, debating whether or not to scold her, and Fred grinned down at her. "That's my girl!"

Alex was sure she was blushing fifty shades of red by now, and Harry smirked at her.

**Alex caught Seamus's eye, and Seamus winked. Snape, however, was not pleased.**

"**Sit down," he snapped at Hermione, then turned to Alex. "Do you know the answers, Ms. Potter?"**

**"Draught of Living Death, stomach of a goat, and there's no difference because they're the same plant." she recited in order, her glare not once wavering. Snape looked surprised yet disgruntled.**

"That's an achievement." Cho smiled.

"How did you know all that?" asked Dean.

Alex shrugged.

**"At least one of you has inherited your mother's intelligence. Well? Why aren't you all copying that down?"**

"You didn't tell them to?" Ginny said.

**There was a sudden rummaging for quills and parchment. Over the noise, Snape said, "And a point will be taken from Gryffindor House for your cheek, Ms. Potter."**

"Please tell me this doesn't continue?" Molly sighed.

"Oh no, me and Snape become the_ best of friends_," Harry said sarcastically, and Alex snickered.

"Oh yes, joined at the hips."

**"And another point _to_ Gryffindor for the correct answer."**

More silence.

"WHAT. JUST. HAPPENED?" Tonks stared at the book, wide eyed.

"Snape must have eaten something rotten before class." Roger Davies blinked in amazement.

**Things didn't improve for the Gryffindors as the Potions lesson continued. Snape put them all into pairs and set them to mixing up a simple potion to cure boils. He swept around in his long black cloak, watching them weigh dried nettles and crush snake fangs, criticizing almost everyone except Malfoy, whom he seemed to like, and Alex, which practically confused everyone.**

**Alex thought it was just because she had been paired with Malfoy.**

"I feel sorry for you." said George.

"What is that supposed to mean Weasley?" Malfoy sneered.

"It means you're an arsehole, ferret." Alex snapped, and Molly reprimanded her for her language.

**He was just telling everyone to look at the perfect way Malfoy had stewed his horned slugs when clouds of acid green smoke and a loud hissing filled the dungeon. Neville had somehow managed to melt Seamus's cauldron into a twisted blob, and their potion was seeping across the stone floor, burning holes in people's shoes. Within seconds, the whole class was standing on their stools while Neville, who had been drenched in the potion when the cauldron collapsed, moaned in pain as angry red boils sprang up all over his arms and legs.**

"Poor boy," Arthur said sympathetically.

"**Idiot boy!"****snarled Snape,**

Fred started to cower away at the intensity of glares being thrown at the book.

"No wonder Neville is so scared of him." Remus shook his head angrily.

**clearing the spilled potion away with one wave of his wand. "I suppose you added the porcupine quills before taking the cauldron off the fire?"**

**Neville whimpered as boils started to pop up all over his nose.**

"**Take him up to the hospital wing," Snape spat at Seamus. Then he rounded on Harry and Ron, who had been working next to Neville.**

"**You — Potter — why didn't you tell him not to add the quills?**

"He was making his own potion," Tonks said irritably.

**Thought he'd make you look good if he got it wrong, did you? That's another point you've lost for Gryffindor."**

"Harry, Harry," Fred tisked.

**This was so unfair that Harry opened his mouth to argue, but Ron kicked him behind their cauldron.**

"**Don't push it," he muttered, "I've heard Snape can turn very nasty."**

All the kids from other houses, besides Slytherin, nodded their heads in agreement.

**As they climbed the steps out of the dungeon an hour later, Harry's mind was racing and his spirits were low. He'd lost two points for Gryffindor in his very first week**

"Oh that's nothing," George said with a grin on his face.

"Excuse me?" Molly rounded on him.

"Nothing mum."

—_**why **_**did Snape hate him so much? He seemed to like Alex well enough.**

"Couldn't get over a childhood rivalry," Remus said shaking his head.

"**Cheer up," said Ron, "Snape's always taking points off Fred and George. Can I come and meet Hagrid with you?"**

"Subtle Ronald," Hermione smiled.

**At five to three they left the castle and made their way across the grounds. Hagrid lived in a small wooden house on the edge of the forbidden forest. A crossbow and a pair of galoshes were outside the front door.**

**When Harry knocked they heard a frantic scrabbling from inside and several booming barks. Then Hagrid's voice rang out, saying, "**_**Back**_**, Fang —**_**back**_**."**

**Hagrid's big, hairy face appeared in the crack as he pulled the door open.**

"**Hang on," he said. "**_**Back**_**, Fang."**

**He let them in, struggling to keep a hold on the collar of an enormous black boarhound.**

**There was only one room inside. Hams and pheasants were hanging from the ceiling, a copper kettle was boiling on the open fire, and in the corner stood a massive bed with a patchwork quilt over it.**

"**Make yerselves at home," said Hagrid, letting go of Fang, who bounded straight at Ron and started licking his ears. Like Hagrid, Fang was clearly not as fierce as he looked.**

"It's the cute names you have to watch out for," Harry explained.

"And how would you know?" Molly asked.

"No reason," Harry said quickly,"Fred why don't you read some more?"

"Oh no Harry why don't we find out how you know," Ron smirked.

"Ronald by any chance would you have any idea what he's talking about?' Molly said shifting her gaze onto him.

"Er...Fred, get back to reading," Ron nervously.

"**This is Ron," Alex told Hagrid, who was pouring boiling water into a large teapot and putting rock cakes onto a plate.**

"**Another Weasley, eh?" said Hagrid, glancing at Ron's freckles.**

**"****I spent half me life chasin' yer twin brothers away from the forest."**

"Excuse me?" Molly shrieked.

The rest of the Weasleys, sensing danger signaled for Fred to continue reading.

**The rock cakes were shapeless lumps with raisins that almost broke their teeth, but Harry, Alex and Ron pretended to be enjoying them as they told Hagrid all about their first lessons.**

Hagrid smiled sheepishly.

**Fang rested his head on Harry's knee and drooled all over his robes.**

"Eww." Parvarti wrinkled her nose.

**The twins and Ron were delighted to hear Hagrid call Filch "that old git."**

"**An' as fer that cat, Mrs. Norris, I'd like ter introduce her to Fang sometime. D'yeh know, every time I go up ter the school, she follows me everywhere? Can't get rid of her — Filch puts her up to it."**

**Harry told Hagrid about Snape's lesson. Hagrid, like Ron, told Harry not to worry about it, that Snape liked hardly any of the students.**

"**But he liked Alex. And he seemed to really **_**hate **_**me."**

"**Rubbish!" said Hagrid. "Why should he?"**

**Yet Harry couldn't help thinking that Hagrid didn't quite meet his eyes when he said that.**

"It just made it more obvious." said Neville.

**"How's yer brother Charlie?" Hagrid asked Ron. "I liked him a lot — great with animals."**

"That was subtle." Astoria rolled her eyes.

**Harry wondered if Hagrid had changed the subject on purpose. While Ron told Hagrid all about Charlie's work with dragons, Harry picked up a piece of paper that was lying on the table under the tea cozy. It was a cutting from the **_**Daily Prophet**_**:**

_**GRINGOTTS BREAK-IN LATEST**_

_**Investigations continue into the break-in at Gringotts on 31 July, widely believed to be the work of Dark wizards or witches unknown. Gringotts goblins today insisted that nothing had been taken. The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied the same day.**_

"_**But we're not telling you what was in there, so keep your noses out if you know what's good for you," said a Gringotts spokesgoblin this afternoon.**_

**Harry remembered Ron telling him on the train that someone had tried to rob Gringotts, but Ron hadn't mentioned the date.**

"**Hagrid!" said Harry, "that Gringotts break-in happened on our birthday! It might've been happening while we were there!**

"You're curiosity is going to kill you one day." Luna smiled.

**There was no doubt about it, Hagrid definitely didn't meet Harry's eyes this time. He grunted and offered him another rock cake. Harry read the story again. **_**The vault that was searched had in fact been emptied earlier that same day. **_**Hagrid had emptied vault seven hundred and thirteen, if you could call it emptying, taking out that grubby little package. Had that been what the thieves were looking for?**

"Of course," McGonagall sighed. "But I have to compliment you both for your deduction skills."

**As the twins and Ron walked back to the castle for dinner, their pockets weighed down with rock cakes they'd been too polite to refuse, Harry thought that none of the lessons he'd had so far had given him as much to think about as tea with Hagrid. Had Hagrid collected that package just in time? Where was it now? And did Hagrid know something about Snape that he didn't want to tell the twins?**

"So curious," Remus smirked.

Fred happily passed the book to Ron, who scowled.

"Why do I have to read?"

* * *

**Hope you guys liked this chapter and please review!**

**~Cassandra**


	9. The Midnight Duel

**Here's the next chapter you guys have been waiting for. The Slytherin version of this story is already up and ready to read! Anyways, hope you enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter**

* * *

No one listened to Ron whine, and Molly eventually told him to read. Ron, fearing his mother's temper, did as he was told.

"**The Midnight Duel**," Ron read, and the twins and Malfoy stiffened.

**Harry had never believed he would a boy he hated more than Dudley, but that was before he met Draco Malfoy.**

"Was I really that bad?" He groaned.

The twins nodded. "You weren't stupid, I'll give you that." commented Alex.

"Gee, thanks Potter."

**Still, first-year Gryffindors only had Potions with the Slytherins, so they didn't have to put up with Malfoy much. Or at least, they didn't until they spotted a notice pinned up in the Gryffindor common room that made them all groan. Flying lessons would be starting on Thursday — ****and Gryffindor and Slytherin would be learning together.**

"**Typical," said Harry darkly. "Just what I always wanted. To make a fool of myself on a broomstick in front of Malfoy."**

"You did anything but." George smirked.

**He had been looking forward to learning to fly more than anything else.**

"Defiantly James' son." McGonagall chuckled.

"**You don't know that you'll make a fool of yourself," said Ron reasonably. "Anyway, I know Malfoy's always going on about how good he is at Quidditch, but I bet that's all talk."**

"No he's pretty good." Alex commented, earning odd looks. "What? I can be nice!"

**Malfoy certainly did talk about flying a lot. He complained loudly about first years never getting on the house Quidditch teams and told long, boastful stories that always seemed to end with him narrowly escaping Muggles in helicopters.**

"Do you even know what a helicopter is?" Hermione asked skeptically.

"Err..."

"I thought so."

**He wasn't the only one, though: the way Seamus Finnigan told it, he'd spent most of his childhood zooming around the countryside on his broomstick.**

"True." Seamus commented.

**Even Ron would tell anyone who'd listen about the time he'd almost hit a hang glider on Charlie's old broom.**

All the Weasley kids snorted.

**Everyone from wizarding families talked about Quidditch constantly. Ron had already had a big argument with Dean Thomas, who shared their dormitory, about soccer. Ron couldn't see what was exciting about a game with only one ball where no one was allowed to fly.**

"I don't like to watch it but it's fun to play." Harry commented.

**Harry had caught Ron prodding Dean's poster of West Ham soccer team, trying to make the players move.**

All muggle borns laughed and Ron went a brilliant red color.

**Neville had never been on a broomstick in his life, because his grandmother had never let him near one. Privately, Harry felt she'd had good reason, because Neville managed to have an extraordinary number of accidents even with both feet on the ground.**

"That's true." Neville nodded.

**Hermione Granger was almost as nervous about flying as Neville was. This was something you couldn't learn by heart out of a book — not that she hadn't tried. ****At breakfast on Thursday she bored them all stupid with flying tips she'd gotten out of a library book called **_**Quidditch Through the Ages**_**.**

All the Quidditch fans cheered.

**Neville was hanging on to her every word, desperate for anything that might help him hang on to his broomstick later, but everybody else was very pleased when Hermione's lecture was interrupted by the arrival of the mail. Harry and Alex hadn't had a single letter since Hagrid's note, something that Malfoy had been quick to notice, of course. ****Malfoy's eagle owl was always bringing him packages of sweets from home, which he opened gloatingly at the Slytherin table.**

A picture of James Potter briefly flashed in Snape's mind.

**A barn owl brought Neville a small package from his grandmother. He opened it excitedly and showed them a glass ball the size of a large marble, which seemed to be full of white smoke.**

"That sounds so cool." Someone muttered

"**It's a Remembrall!" he explained. "Gran knows I forget things — this tells you if there's something you've forgotten to do. Look, you hold it tight like this and if it turns red — oh…" His face fell, because the Remembrall had suddenly glowed scarlet, "…you've forgotten something…"**

"Pretty useless if you ask me" said Padma. "It doesn't tell you what you've forgotten."

**Neville was trying to remember what he'd forgotten when Draco Malfoy, who was passing the Gryffindor table, snatched the Remembrall out of his hand. ****Harry and Ron jumped to their feet. They were half hoping for a reason to fight Malfoy, but Professor McGonagall, who could spot trouble quicker than any teacher in the school, was there in a flash.**

Sirius and Remus burst out laughing.

"I had to with these hooligans around." McGonagall gestured to the hysterical duo.

"**What's going on?"**

"**Malfoy's got my Remembrall, Professor."**

**Scowling, Malfoy quickly dropped the Remembrall back on the table. **"**Just looking," he said, and he sloped away with Crabbe and Goyle behind him.**

**At three-thirty that afternoon, Harry, Alex, Ron, and the other Gryffindors hurried down the front steps onto the grounds for their first flying lesson. It was a clear, breezy day, and the grass rippled under their feet as they marched down the sloping lawns toward a smooth, flat lawn on the opposite side of the grounds to the forbidden forest, whose trees were swaying darkly in the distance.**

"Perfect weather conditions to." Katie added.

"Like with Harry and Alex it would have mattered." Alicia grinned.

**The Slytherins were already there, and so were twenty broomsticks lying in neat lines on the ground. Harry had heard Fred and George Weasley complain about the school brooms, saying that some of them started to vibrate if you flew too high, or always flew slightly to the left.**

"They do." Alex scrunched her nose.

**Their teacher, Madam Hooch, arrived. She had short, gray hair, and yellow eyes like a hawk.**

Madam Hooch smiled at her description.

"**Well, what are you all waiting for?" she barked. "Everyone stand by a broomstick. Come on, hurry up." ****Harry glanced down at his broom. It was old and some of the twigs stuck out at odd angles.**

All the Quidditch players shuddered.

"**Stick out your right hand over your broom," called Madam Hooch at the front, "and say 'Up!'"**

"**UP" everyone shouted. ****Harry and Alex's broom jumped into their hands at once, ****but it was one of the few that did. Hermione Granger's had simply rolled over on the ground, and Neville's hadn't moved at all.**

**Perhaps brooms, like horses, could tell when you were afraid, thought Harry; there was a quaver in Neville's voice that said only too clearly that he wanted to keep his feet on the ground.**

"Like all magic it requires confidence." That was one of the sanest things Luna had ever said.

**Madam Hooch then showed them how to mount their brooms without sliding off the end, and walked up and down the rows correcting their grips. Harry and Ron were delighted when she told Malfoy he'd been doing it wrong for years.**

"The grip depends on the person." Harry and Draco said in unison and they turned to glare at each other.

Alex laughed. _Must be a seeker thing._

"**Now, when I blow my whistle, you kick off from the ground, hard," said Madam Hooch. "Keep your brooms steady, rise a few feet, and then come straight back down by leaning forward slightly. On my whistle — three — two —"**

**But Neville, nervous and jumpy and frightened of being left on the ground, pushed off hard before the whistle had touched Madam Hooch's lips.**

"**Come back, boy!" she shouted, but Neville was rising straight up like a cork shot out of a bottle — twelve feet — twenty feet. The twins saw his scared white face look down at the ground falling away, saw him gasp, slip sideways off the broom and — ****WHAM — ****a thud and a nasty crack and Neville lay facedown on the grass in a heap.**

People winced in sympathy.

**His broomstick was still rising higher and higher, and started to drift lazily toward the forbidden forest and out of sight. ****Madam Hooch was bending over Neville, her face as white as his.**

"**Broken wrist," They heard her mutter. "Come on, boy — it's all right, up you get."**

**She turned to the rest of the class. **"**None of you is to move while I take this boy to the hospital wing! You leave those brooms where they are or you'll be out of Hogwarts before you can say 'Quidditch.' Come on, dear."**

"I had to eat my words." Madam Hooch sighed.

**Neville, his face tear-streaked, clutching his wrist, hobbled off with Madam Hooch, who had her arm around him. ****No sooner were they out of earshot than Malfoy burst into laughter.**

Malfoy flinched under all the glares he received.

"**Did you see his face, the great lump?"**

**The other Slytherins joined in. **"**Shut up, Malfoy," snapped Parvati Patil.**

Neville sent her a thankful look.

"**Ooh, sticking up for Longbottom?" said Pansy Parkinson, a hard-faced Slytherin girl. "Never thought **_**you'd **_**like fat little cry-babies, Parvati."**

"Didn't know you stuck up for snobby little ferrets, Parkinson." Alex sneered.

"**Look!" said Malfoy, darting forward and snatching something out of the grass. "It's that stupid thing Longbottom's gran sent him."****The Remembrall glittered in the sun as he held it up.**

"**Give that here, Malfoy," said Harry quietly. Everyone stopped talking to watch. ****Malfoy smiled nastily.**

"**I think I'll leave it somewhere for Longbottom to find — how about — up a tree?"**

"**Give it **_**here**_**!" Harry yelled, but Malfoy had leapt onto his broomstick and taken off. He hadn't been lying, he **_**could **_**fly well. Hovering level with the topmost branches of an oak he called, "Come and get it, Potter!"**

**Harry and Alex grabbed their brooms. **"_**No!" **_**shouted Hermione Granger. "Madam Hooch told us not to move — you'll get us all into trouble." The twins ****ignored her.**

"Like you normally do." She sighed.

**Blood was pounding in his ears. He mounted the broom and kicked hard against the ground and up, up he soared; air rushed through his hair, and his robes whipped out behind him — and in a rush of fierce joy he realized he'd found something he could do without being taught — this was easy, this was **_**wonderful**_**.**

"Like your farther, a natural."

**Alex had been pulled back by Hermione before she had the chance to kick off.**

**"What the hell, Hermione?" she hissed.**

Alex scowled.

**Harry pulled his broomstick up a little to take it even higher, and heard screams and gasps of girls back on the ground and an admiring whoop from Ron.**

"Thanks, that showed me I was doing it right." Harry smiled.

**He turned his broomstick sharply to face Malfoy in midair. Malfoy looked stunned.**

"Of course he was. It was your first time on a broom and you looked like you where training to go pro." Blaise explained.

"**Give it here," Harry called, "or I'll knock you off that broom!"**

"**Oh, yeah?" said Malfoy, trying to sneer, but looking worried.**

**Harry knew, somehow, what to do. He leaned forward and grasped the broom tightly in both hands, and it shot toward Malfoy like a javelin. Malfoy only just got out of the way in time; Harry made a sharp about-face and held the broom steady. A few people below were clapping.**

"**No Crabbe and Goyle up here to save your neck, Malfoy," Harry called. ****The same thought seemed to have struck Malfoy.**

"**Catch it if you can, then!" he shouted, and he threw the glass ball high into the air and streaked back toward the ground. ****Harry saw, as though in slow motion, the ball rise up in the air and then start to fall.**

**He leaned forward and pointed his broom handle down — next second he was gathering speed in a steep dive, racing the ball — wind whistled in his ears, mingled with the screams of people watching — he stretched out his hand — a foot from the ground he caught it, just in time to pull his broom straight, and he hovered in the air.**

"Bloody hell Harry-"

"-a dive like that-"

"-On a school broom?"

The older quidditch players who have yet to hear how Harry got into the team were all stunned.

Sirius gaped and Remus smiled.

**Harry raised himself a bit higher to where Malfoy was still floating, but was immediately bombarded by rocks and he dropped the rememberall. Malfoy took this as an opportunity and shot after it.**

**Wrenching herself from Hermione's grasp, Alex quickly mounted her broom again and kicked off. Malfoy caught the rememberall, but Harry couldn't get it back as he was still bombarded by rocks. Alex quickly flew in front of him, and caught one rock in hand before throwing it back at Crabbe and Goyle, hitting Crabbe square in the chest and he stumbled. She then swerved the broom, using it like a bat to hit back a rock, knoking Goyle painfully on his forehead.**

"How can you have that much accuracy?" asked Malfoy with a disbelieving shake of his head.

**"Think you're clever, don't you Potter?" Malfoy said and dropped the rememberall. Alex shot after it and caught it as it was about to land on the ground, touching down right after. Harry followed suit. Their fellow Gryffindors cheered, but it all came to an end.**

"**HARRY POTTER! ALEXIS POTTER!"**

**Their hearts sank faster than they'd just dived. Professor McGonagall was running toward them. He got to his feet, trembling.**

"_**Never **_— **in all my time at Hogwarts —" Professor McGonagall was almost speechless with shock, and her glasses flashed furiously,**

"— **how **_**dare **_**you — might have broken your neck —"**

"**It wasn't his fault, Professor —"**

"**Be quiet, Miss Patil —"**

"**But Malfoy —"**

"**That's **_**enough**_**, Mr. Weasley. Potters, follow me, now."**

"We where worried when you wouldn't listen."

**Alex caught sight of Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle's triumphant faces as they left, walking numbly in Professor McGonagall's wake as she strode toward the castle. They was going to be expelled, she just knew it.**

"Nice to know Harry isn't the only pessimist." Hermione snickered.

Alex leaned on Fred's shoulder. "You can't blame me, you know.

**Harry wanted to say something to defend himself and his sister, but there seemed to be something wrong with his voice. Professor McGonagall was sweeping along without even looking at them; they had to jog to keep up. Now they've done it. They hadn't even lasted two weeks. They'd be packing their bags in ten minutes. What would the Dursleys say when he turned up on the doorstep?**

"Get in your room and stay there and never come out or they'd ignore all knowledge of our existences." Harry deadpanned.

**Up the front steps, up the marble staircase inside, and still Professor McGonagall didn't say a word to him. She wrenched open doors and marched along corridors with Harry and Alex trotting miserably behind her. Maybe she was taking them to Dumbledore. The twins thought of Hagrid, expelled but allowed to stay on as gamekeeper. Perhaps they could be Hagrid's assistant. Their stomachs twisted as they imagined it, watching Ron and the others becoming wizards and witches, while they stumped around the grounds carrying Hagrid's bag.**

**Professor McGonagall stopped outside a classroom. She opened the door and poked her head inside.**

"**Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, could I borrow Wood for a moment?"**

**Wood? thought Harry, bewildered; was Wood a cane she was going to use on them?**

"I would NEVER Potter." said McGonaggal, outraged.

**But Wood turned out to be a person, a burly fifth-year boy who came out of Flitwick's class looking confused. **"**Follow me, you two," said Professor McGonagall, and they marched on up the corridor, Wood looking curiously at Harry.**

"**In here." ****Professor McGonagall pointed them into a classroom that was empty except for Peeves, who was busy writing rude words on the blackboard.**

"Lily's fault from when she use to shout at us." Remus defended raising his arms in the air.

"**Out, Peeves!" she barked. Peeves threw the chalk into a bin, which clanged loudly, and he swooped out cursing.**

People gave her impressed looks.

**Professor McGonagall slammed the door behind him and turned to face the two boys.**

"**Potter, this is Oliver Wood. Wood — I've found you a Seeker." ****Wood's expression changed from puzzlement to delight.**

The Quidditch team laughed after seeing how happy Wood was when he told them.

"**Are you serious, Professor?"**

"**Absolutely," said Professor McGonagall crisply. "The children are naturals. I've never seen anything like it. Was that your first time on a broomstick, Potters?"**

**The twins nodded silently. They didn't have a clue what was going on, but they didn't seem to be being expelled, and some of the feeling started coming back to Harry's legs.**

"**The boy caught that thing in his hand after a fifty-foot dive," Professor McGonagall told Wood. "Didn't even scratch himself. Charlie Weasley couldn't have done it."**

"Don't tell Charlie that." laughed George.

**"The girl had exceptional accuracy, and very impulsive on a broom."**

**Wood was now looking as though all his dreams had come true at once.**

"**Ever seen a game of Quidditch, Potters?" he asked excitedly.**

"**Wood's captain of the Gryffindor team," Professor McGonagall explained.**

"**He's just the build for a Seeker, too," said Wood, now walking around Harry and staring at him. "Light —speedy — we'll have to get him a decent broom, Professor a Nimbus Two Thousand or a Cleansweep Seven, I'd say."**

"The Nimbus." Most of the Gryffindors chorused at once.

**When Wood moved to examine Alex, he paused, "Hello,"**

**Alex flushed, "Hi"**

"Ooh, I smell something in the air!" Parvarti teased, making Fred scowl and hug Alex possessively.

**"Not exactly the usual chaser build, but if she's as good as you say, Professor ****— we'll have the element of surprise.**" Wood grinned. "Just in time too. Alicia wanted to quit the team this year."

"And it's a bloody good thing I did, too."

**"I shall speak to Professor Dumbledore and see if we can't bend the first-year rule. Heaven knows, we need a better team than last year. **_**Flattened **_**in that last match by Slytherin, I couldn't look Severus Snape in the face for weeks…"**

"Not that you'd want to." The Weasley twins sniggered.

**Professor McGonagall peered sternly over her glasses at Harry and Alex.**

"**I want to hear you're training hard, Potters, or I may change my mind about punishing you both."**

**Then she suddenly smiled.**

"**Your father would have been proud," she said. "He was an excellent Quidditch player himself."**

"Thanks for telling us that Professor." The twins smiled.

"**You're **_**joking**_**."**

**It was dinnertime. Harry had just finished telling Ron what had happened when he'd left the grounds with Professor McGonagall. Ron had a piece of steak and kidney pie halfway to his mouth, but he'd forgotten all about it.**

"You made Ron forget about food." All the Weasley's present stared in shock.

"_**Seeker and Chaser**_**?" he said. "But first years **_**never **_— **you must be the youngest house players in about —"**

" — **a century," said Alex, shovelling pie into her mouth. She felt particularly hungry after the excitement of the afternoon. "Wood told us."**

"James would be proud." Sirius smiled.

**Ron was so amazed, so impressed, he just sat and gaped at the twins.**

"**We start training next week," said Harry. "Only don't tell anyone, Wood wants to keep it a secret."**

People laughed, that hadn't lasted for long.

**Fred and George Weasley now came into the hall, spotted the twins, and hurried over.**

"**Well done," said George in a low voice. "Wood told us. We're on the team too — Beaters."**

"Ironic that we have a pair of human bludgers as Beaters." Katie said amused and the rest of the team snorted.

"**I tell you, we're going to win that Quidditch cup for sure this year,"**

Harry looked down and Alex scratched the back of her neck nervously.

"We don't blame you two." said Angelina.

Katie nodded. "Merlin's sake, you were both in the hospital wing!"

**said Fred. "We haven't won since Charlie left, but this year's team is going to be brilliant. You must be good, Harry, Alex, Wood was almost skipping when he told us."**

The Gryffindor team, when Wood had been captain laughed.

"He actually was skipping when he told us." said Fred.

"**Anyway, we've got to go, Lee Jordan reckons he's found a new secret passageway out of the school."**

Filch's face lit up like a Christmas tree.

"**Bet it's that one behind the statue of - - - that we found in our first week. See you."**

"I don't think such things should be revealed as without the books we wouldn't know about them." Dumbledore explained.

Umbridge fumed, and the Weasleys, Hermione and the twins sighed in relief.

**Fred and George had hardly disappeared when someone far less welcome turned up: Malfoy, flanked by Crabbe and Goyle.**

"**Having a last meal, Potter? When are you getting the train back to the Muggles?"**

"**You're a lot braver now that you're back on the ground and you've got your little friends ****with you," said Harry coolly.**

**There was of course nothing at all little about Crabbe and Goyle, but as the High Table was full of teachers, neither of them could do more than crack their knuckles and scowl.**

"I'm surprised they realised that." Lee chortled, and Malfoy scowled.

"**I'd take you on anytime on my own," said Malfoy. "Tonight, if you want. Wizard's duel. Wands only — no contact. What's the matter? Never heard of a wizard's duel before, I suppose?"**

"**Of course they have," said Ron, wheeling around. "I'm their second, who's yours?"**

Ron cowered from his mothers glare.

**Malfoy looked at Crabbe and Goyle, sizing them up.**

"**Crabbe," he said. "Midnight all right? We'll meet you in the trophy room; that's always unlocked."**

**When Malfoy had gone, Ron, Alex and Harry looked at each other.**

"**What is a wizard's duel?" said Alex. "And what do you mean, you're our second?"**

"**Well, technically, either one of you can be the second. A second's there to take over if you die," said Ron casually, getting started at last on his cold pie. Catching the look on twins' faces, he added quickly, "But people only die in proper duels, you know, with real wizards. The most you and Malfoy'll be able to do is send sparks at each other. Neither of you knows enough magic to do any real damage. I bet he expected you to refuse, anyway."**

"I actually did." Malfoy nodded.

"**And what if I wave my wand and nothing happens?" said Harry.**

"**Throw it away and punch him on the nose," Ron suggested.**

Alex snorted. "Hermione had that favor in third year."

The quartet laughed, much to the confusion of those who didn't know what happened.

"**Excuse me."**

**They both looked up. It was Hermione Granger.**

"**Can't a person eat in peace in this place?" said Ron.**

**Hermione ignored him and spoke to the twins. **"**I couldn't help overhearing what you and Malfoy were saying —"**

"**Bet you could," Ron muttered.**

"Ronald Weasley!" Molly screeched.

"— **and you **_**mustn't **_**go wandering around the school at night, think of the points you'll lose Gryffindor if you're caught, and you're bound to be. It's really very selfish of you."**

"**And it's really none of your business," said Alex.**

"**Good-bye," said Ron.**

**All the same, it wasn't what you'd call the perfect end to the day, Harry thought, as he lay awake much later listening to Dean and Seamus falling asleep (Neville wasn't back from the hospital wing). Ron had spent all evening giving him advice such as possible.**

"**If he tries to curse you, you'd better dodge it, because I can't remember how to block them."**

"That's good advice then your not wasting energy on creating a shield and not all spells can be block." Remus lectured.

"But you'd be wasting energy on dodging. It'll tire you out." Tonks retorted.

**There was a very good chance they were going to get caught by Filch or Mrs. Norris, and Harry felt he was pushing his luck, breaking another school rule today. On the other hand, Malfoy's sneering face kept looming up out of the darkness — this was his big chance to beat Malfoy face-to-face. He couldn't miss it.**

"Glad I'm so important."

"**Half-past eleven," Ron muttered at last, "we'd better go."**

**They pulled on their bathrobes, picked up their wands, and crept across the tower room, down the spiral staircase, and into the Gryffindor common room. A few embers were still glowing in the fireplace, turning all the armchairs into hunched black shadows. They met Alex at the bottom of the staircase and had almost reached the portrait hole when a voice spoke from the chair nearest them, "I can't believe you're going to do this."**

**A lamp flickered on. It was Hermione Granger, wearing a pink bathrobe and a frown.**

"_**You!**_**" said Ron furiously. "Go back to bed!"**

"**I almost told your brother," Hermione snapped, "Percy — he's a prefect, he'd put a stop to this."**

Fred and George snorted, "Like he could." and Percy glared at them.

**Alex was pissed, and Harry couldn't believe anyone could be so interfering.**

"We're sorry!"

"**Come on," he said to Ron and his sister. He pushed open the portrait of the Fat Lady and climbed through the hole.**

**Hermione wasn't going to give up that easily. She followed Ron through the portrait hole, hissing at them like an angry goose.**

Some people snorted while Hermione looked indignant.

"**Don't you **_**care **_**about Gryffindor, do you **_**only **_**care about yourselves, **_**I **_**don't want Slytherin to win the house cup, and you'll lose all the points I got from Professor McGonagall for knowing about Switching Spells."**

"**Go away."**

"**All right, but I warned you, you just remember what I said when you're on the train home tomorrow, you're so —"**

**But what they were, they didn't find out. Hermione had turned to the portrait of the Fat Lady to get back inside and found herself facing an empty painting. The Fat Lady had gone on a nighttime visit and Hermione was locked out of Gryffindor tower.**

"So many detentions could have been avoided." the twins, Lee, Sirius and Remus sighed.

"**Now what am I going to do?" she asked shrilly.**

"**That's your problem," said Ron. "We've got to go, we're going to be late."**

**They hadn't even reached the end of the corridor when Hermione caught up with them.**

"**I'm coming with you," she said.**

"**You are **_**not**_**." Alex snapped at once.**

"**D'you think I'm going to stand out here and wait for Filch to catch me? If he finds all three of us I'll tell him the truth, that I was trying to stop you, and you can back me up."**

"It's not like he would listen, you know. He'd put all of us in detention anyway." Alex pointed out.

"**You've got some nerve —" said Ron loudly.**

"**Shut up, both of you!" said Harry sharply. "I heard something."**

**It was a sort of snuffling.**

"**Mrs. Norris?" breathed Ron, squinting through the dark.**

**It wasn't Mrs. Norris. It was Neville. He was curled up on the floor, fast asleep, but jerked suddenly awake as they crept nearer.**

"**Thank goodness you found me! I've been out here for hours, I couldn't remember the new password to get in to bed."**

"That's why the rememberall turned red." Cho realised.

"**Keep your voice down, Neville. The password's 'Pig snout' but it won't help you now, the Fat Lady's gone off somewhere." said Alex.**

"**How's your arm?" said Harry.**

"So caring." Molly smiled.

"**Fine," said Neville, showing them. "Madam Pomfrey mended it in about a minute."**

"**Good — well, look, Neville, we've got to be somewhere, we'll see you later —"**

"**Don't leave me!" said Neville, scrambling to his feet, "I don't want to stay here alone, the Bloody Baron's been past twice already."**

Many shuddered.

**Ron looked at his watch and then glared furiously at Hermione and Neville.**

"**If either of you get us caught, I'll never rest until I've learned that Curse of the Bogies Quirrell told us about, and used it on you."**

**Hermione opened her mouth, perhaps to tell Ron exactly how to use the Curse of the Bogies,**

"How did you know me so well?" the twins just shrugged.

**but Alex hissed at her to be quiet and beckoned them all forward.**

"You literally hissed, Alex." Hermione pointed out, and Alex paled as every head in the hall turned to her.

"W-what? But I can't! Not unless there's a snake around."

Sirius wrapped an arm around his goddaughter. "It's okay, pup. No one's holding it against you." he glared around the hall. "Right?"

Many nodded frantically at the supposed convict's non existent threat, yet were surprised how he treated the Potter girl.

**They flitted along corridors striped with bars of moonlight from the high windows.**

"Sounds so nice."

**At every turn Harry expected to run into Filch or Mrs. Norris, but they were lucky. They sped up a staircase to the third floor and tiptoed toward the trophy room.**

**Malfoy and Crabbe weren't there yet.**

**The crystal trophy cases glimmered where the moonlight caught them. Cups, shields, plates, and statues winked silver and gold in the darkness.**

"That sounds creepy." Colin shivered.

**They edged along the walls, keeping their eyes on the doors at either end of the room. Harry and Alex took out their wands in case Malfoy leapt in and started at once.**

Many nodded in approval.

**The minutes crept by.**

"**He's late, maybe he's chickened out," Ron whispered.**

**Then a noise in the next room made them jump. Harry had only just raised his wand when they heard someone speak — and it wasn't Malfoy.**

"**Sniff around, my sweet, they might be lurking in a corner."**

"RUN!" Fred, George and Lee screamed, jumping out of their seats and began running around the hall like lunatics. The Hall burst into uncontrollable laughter. Finally, Umbridge stood, her face nearly as red as the Weasleys' hair.

"That is ENOUGH!" she shrieked, and Remus winced.

**It was Filch speaking to Mrs. Norris. Horror-struck, Harry waved madly at the other four to follow him as quickly as possible; they scurried silently toward the door, away from Filch's voice. Neville's robes had barely whipped round the corner when they heard Filch enter the trophy room.**

"**They're in here somewhere," they heard him mutter, "probably hiding."**

"**This way!" Harry mouthed to the others and, petrified;**

Hermione and all the others who where attacked shivered remembering the big yellow eyes.

**they began to creep down a long gallery full of suits of armour. They could hear Filch getting nearer. Neville suddenly let out a frightened squeak and broke into a run he tripped, grabbed Ron around the waist, and the pair of them toppled right into a suit of armour.**

The majorette of people winced.

**The clanging and crashing were enough to wake the whole castle.**

"**RUN!" Harry yelled, and the four of them sprinted down the gallery, not looking back to see whether Filch was following — they swung around the doorpost and galloped down one ****corridor then another, the twins in the lead,**

"Of course, we could barely bloody keep up." Ron mutters and Neville and Hermione nod in agreement.

**without any idea where they were or where they were going — they ripped through a tapestry and found themselves in a hidden passageway, hurtled along it and came out near their Charms classroom, which they knew was miles from the trophy room.**

"You can run." Lee commented.

Alex smiled sarcastically. "Years of endurance."

"You can thank Dudley." Harry added sardonically.

"**I think we've lost him," Alex panted, leaning against the cold wall and brushing her hair out of her sweaty face. Neville was bent double, wheezing and spluttering.**

"**I —**_**told **_— **you," Hermione gasped, clutching at the stitch in her chest, "I — told — you."**

**Alex looked about ready to slap her senseless.**

"Not the time." Fred started.

George grinned. "For _I told you so'_s"

"**We've got to get back to Gryffindor tower," said Ron, "quickly as possible."**

"**Malfoy tricked you," Hermione said to the twins. "You realize that, don't you? He was never going to meet you — Filch knew someone was going to be in the trophy room, Malfoy must have tipped him off."**

**Harry thought she was probably right, but he wasn't going to tell her that.**

Hermione mock glared.

"**Let's go."**

**It wasn't going to be that simple. They hadn't gone more than a dozen paces when a doorknob rattled and something came shooting out of a classroom in front of them.**

**It was Peeves. He caught sight of them and gave a squeal of delight.**

"**Shut up, Peeves — please — you'll get us thrown out."**

**Peeves cackled.**

"**Wandering around at midnight, Ickle Firsties? Tut, tut, tut. Naughty, naughty, you'll get caughty."**

"**Not if you don't give us away, Peeves, please."**

"Not going to help."

"**Should tell Filch, I should," said Peeves in a saintly voice, but his eyes glittered wickedly. "It's for your own good, you know."**

"**Get out of the way," snapped Ron, taking a swipe at Peeves this was a big mistake.**

"RON!" A lot of people groaned.

Alex and Hermione laughed.

"It's funny how you're reading about your own stupidity."

"**STUDENTS OUT OF BED!" Peeves bellowed, "STUDENTS OUT OF BED DOWN THE CHARMS CORRIDOR!"**

**Ducking under Peeves, they ran for their lives, right to the end of the corridor where they slammed into a door — and it was locked.**

"**This is it!" Ron moaned, as they pushed helplessly at the door, "We're done for! This is the end!"**

"Drama Queen." Daphne snorted good naturedly.

**They could hear footsteps, Filch running as fast as he could toward Peeves' shouts.**

"**Oh, move over," Hermione snarled. She grabbed Alex's wand, tapped the lock, and whispered, "**_**Alohomora!**_**" The lock clicked and the door swung open**

Fred, George, Remus, Sirius and Percy gaped at her.

"B-but...how?" Percy spluttered. "A first year, with someone else's wand , no less!"

— **they piled through it, shut it quickly, and pressed their ears against it, listening.**

"**Which way did they go, Peeves?" Filch was saying. "Quick, tell me."**

"**Say 'please.'"**

"**Don't mess with me, Peeves, now **_**where did they go**_**?"**

"**Shan't say nothing if you don't say please," said Peeves in his annoying singsong voice.**

"He won't say anything." Sirius grinned.

"**All right —**_**please**_**."**

"**NOTHING! Ha haaa! Told you I wouldn't say nothing if you didn't say please! Ha ha! Haaaaaa!" And they heard the sound of Peeves whooshing away and Filch cursing in rage.**

A few people laughed, many sighed in relief.

"**He thinks this door is locked," Harry whispered. "I think we'll be okay — get **_**off**_**, Neville!" For Neville had been tugging on the sleeve of Harry's bathrobe for the last minute. "**_**What**_**?"**

Where they were dawned on a few peoples faces.

**Harry turned around — and saw, quite clearly, what. For a moment, he was sure he'd walked into a nightmare — this was too much, on top of everything that had happened so far.**

**They weren't in a room, as he had supposed. They were in a corridor. The forbidden corridor on the third floor. And now they knew why it was forbidden. They were looking straight into the eyes of a monstrous dog, a dog that filled the whole space between ceiling and floor. It had three heads. Three pairs of rolling, mad eyes; three noses, twitching and quivering in their direction; three drooling mouths, saliva hanging in slippery ropes from yellowish fangs.**

"A Cerberus? In a school?" Molly gasped.

**It was standing quite still, all six eyes staring at them, and Harry knew that the only reason they weren't already dead was that their sudden appearance had taken it by surprise, but it was quickly getting over that, there was no mistaking what those thunderous growls meant.**

**Harry groped for the doorknob — between Filch and death, he'd take Filch.**

"Good." Most people chorused.

**They fell backward — Alexslammed the door shut, and they ran, they almost flew, back down the corridor. Filch must have hurried off to look for them somewhere else, because they didn't see him anywhere, but they hardly cared — all they wanted to do was put as much space as possible between them and that monster. ****They didn't stop running until they reached the portrait of the Fat Lady on the seventh floor.**

"**Where on earth have you all been?" she asked, looking at their bathrobes hanging off their shoulders and their flushed, sweaty faces.**

"**Never mind that — pig snout, pig snout," panted Harry, and the portrait swung forward. They scrambled into the common room and collapsed, trembling, into armchairs.**

"Nicely done." Blaise smirked.

**It was a while before any of them said anything. Neville, indeed, looked as if he'd never speak again.**

"I didn't think I would." He laughed.

"**What do they think they're doing, keeping a thing like that locked up in a school?" said Ron finally. "If any dog needs exercise, that one does."**

Almost everyone laughed.

**Hermione had got both her breath and her bad temper back again. "You don't use your eyes, any of you, do you?" she snapped. "Didn't you see what it was standing on?"**

"I was to scared to look at it's head."

"**The floor?" Harry suggested.**

**Alex glared at her. "I wasn't looking at its feet, I was too busy with its heads. In case you haven't noticed, there were _three!_"**

"Only you could be sarcastic in that situa-OW! Alex, that hurt."

"You deserved it Fred."

"**No, **_**not **_**the floor. It was standing on a trapdoor. It's obviously guarding something."**

**She stood up, glaring at them.**

"**I hope you're pleased with yourselves. We could all have been killed — or worse, expelled.**

"You really needed to get you're priorities straight, Mione."

**Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to bed."**

**Ron stared after her, his mouth open.**

"**No, we don't mind," he said. "You'd think we dragged her along, wouldn't you."**

People laughed again.

**"Bloody hell, and I share a dorm with her. and I think she just locked me out."**

Another round of laughter echoed in the hall.

**But Hermione had given Harry something else to think about as he climbed back into bed.**

**The dog was guarding something…What had Hagrid said? Gringotts was the safest place in the world for something you wanted to hide — except perhaps Hogwarts.**

"To smart for your own good." Professor Sprout breathed.

**It looked as though Harry had found out where the grubby little package from vault seven hundred and thirteen was.**

**Meanwhile, Alex trodded up to the first year girl's dorms, and knocked loudly on the door for Hermione to hear.**

**"Hermione, you bloody prat, let me in!"**

More laughter.

"That was the chapter." Ron said and handed the book to Ginny.

Ginny blinked in surprise but took the book anyway. "Well, this chapter should be interesting,"

* * *

**Hope you guys liked this chapter and please review!**

**~Cassandra**


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